THE    TOWER    OF    PELEE 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


FRONTISPIECE 

The  Tower  of  Pelee,  seen  from  near  the  crater's  edge,  and  from  an  altitude  of 
approximately  4000  feet.  Photograph  taken  on  June  13,  1903,  looking  south  by  west, 
and  from  a  distance  of  700~800  feet.  The  height  of  the  nearly  vertical  tower  as  it  here 
appears  is  about  840  feet  (the  thickness  of  the  base  upwards  of  500  feet),  the  sheer  wall 
of  rock  rising  out  of  a  supporting  cone  or  "  dome,"  the  summit  of  which  considerably 
overtops  the  actual  crest  of  the  volcano.  The  left-hand  face  of  the  tower — that  which  is 
in  shadow — is  the  face,  turned  to  the  east-northeast,  which  appears  in  Plate  V.,  and 
shows  the  smooth  side  rubbed  out  by  attrition.  The  rough  northern  face  is  scraggy, 
almost  bouldery,  through  irregular  breakages,  and  shows  the  effects  of  explosion-dis- 
ruptions. A  recent  decapitation  of  the  summit  is  distinctly  indicated  in  the  even 
transverse  line  which  appears  a  short  distance  below  the  top.  The  vapor  masses  shroud- 
ing the  base  of  the  tower  are  almost  wholly  of  steam — steam  that  is  being  forced  by  the 
volcano  through  the  mass  of  the  basal  cone  itself,  and  partly  through  the  contact  zone 
of  the  tower  and  cone.  The  aspect  of  the  tower  from  this  point,  with  the  steam  and 
ash-puffs  and  blue  sulphur  fumes  playing  about  its  base,  was  one  of  extraordinary 
magnificence. 


THE 

TOWER  OF  PELEE 


BY 

ANGELO  HEILPRIN,  F.R.G.S., 

*4      OF    THE 
SHEFFIELD    SCIENTIFIC    SCHOOL    OF    YALE    UNIVERSITY 

LATE    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    GEOGRAPHICAL    SOCIETY    OF    PHILADELPHIA, 
MEMBER    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PHILOSOPHICAL    SOCIETY,    ETC. 

AUTHOR    OF 
"  MONT    PELEE    AND    THE    TRAGEDY    OF    MARTINIQUE,"    ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

of 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

1904 


frl!ERAL 


COPYRIGHT,  1904 
BY  J.   B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


Published  December,  1904 


PRINTED    BY    J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY,    PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE 

THE  following  pages,  dealing  with  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
structures  that  have  ever  been  described  from  the  earth's  surface,  relate 
to  what  might  properly  be  termed  the  middle  period  in  the  modern 
history  of  Pelee.  The  cataclysms  of  May  8  and  August  30,  1902,  had, 
it  was  thought,  measured  the  full  activity  of  Martinique's  re-born  vol- 
cano, and  closed  the  particular  chapter  in  vulcanology  which  it  had 
opened.  The  construction  of  the  volcano's  extraordinary  and  unique 
excrescence  has,  however,  once  more  shown  how  feeble  may  be  the 
knowledge  of  phenomena  that  are  ordinarily  assumed  to  be  fairly  well 
measured,  and  placed  before  the  investigator  new  problems  and  a  new 
field  for  investigation  which  could  hardly  have  been  anticipated.  The 
'particular  object  affecting  these  problems  for  the  moment  no  longer 
exists,  but  for  that  reason  the  investigation  is  not  less  interesting  and 
important. 

In  his  third  visit  to  the  island  of  Martinique  the  author  was  again 
made  the  recipient  of  the  hospitality  which  the  Clerc  mansion  at  Vive 
afforded.  To  the  kind  people,  and  now  "old  friends"  of  the  estate, 
who  made  his  investigations  in  the  summer  of  1903  pleasant  as  well 
as  profitable,  he  is  under  lasting  obligations,  and  he  can  but  ill  repay 
their  generosity  and  goodwill  in  the  expression  of  thanks  which  these 

few  words  convey. 

ANGELO  HEILPRIN. 

NEW  HAVEN,  December  ],  1904. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

MARTINIQUE  REVISITED  AND  A  FOURTH  ASCENT  OF  PELEE  5 

THE  TOWER  OF  PELEE   11 

THE  AFTER-HISTORY  AND  NATURE  OF  THE  TOWER  22 

FURTHER  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  PHENOMENA  OF  PELEE  32 

SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  VOLCANIC  PHENOMENA  SUGGESTED  BY  THE  ANTILLEAN  ERUPTION  43 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Frontispiece.    The  Tower  of  Pelee — looking  S.  by  W. 
I.  Pelee  from  the  Graveyard  of  Marigot. 
II.  Pelee  from  Saint-Pierre. 

III.  The  Tower — looking  North. 

IV.  The  Tower— looking  NNW. 
V.  The  Tower— looking  WSW. 

VI.  Pelee' s  Crater. 

VII.  Pelee  and  the  Riviere  Blanche  valley. 
Vila.  Pelee  after  the  destruction  of  the  tower. 
VIII.  Pelee  in  eruption— August  30,  1902. 
IX.  Pelee  in  eruption— August  30,  1902. 
X.  Pelee  on  August  31,  after  the  cataclysm. 
XI.  Overhead  ash-cloud. 
XII.  Block  of  ejected  audesite. 

XIII.  Morne  Rouge  after  its  destruction. 

XIV.  Morne  Rouge  after  its  destruction. 
XV.  Precheur  buried  in  ash. 

XVI.  The  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche. 
XVII.  Gorge  of  the  Falaise. 

XVIII,  XIX.  Fragments  of  Manuscript  recovered  from  Saint-Pierre. 
XX.  Bronze  from  Saint-Pierre. 
XXI,  XXII.  Deformed  glass  vessels  from  Saint-Pierre. 


OF  THE     -       ^N. 

Y   I) 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE    TOWER    OF    PELEE 


MARTINIQUE   REVISITED   AND   A   FOURTH   ASCENT   OF   PELEE 

NOT  quite  a  month  after  the  first  anniversary  of  the  destruction  of 
Saint-Pierre,  I  again  set  foot  on  Martinique  soil.  The  silent  city  re- 
mained much  as  it  was  at  the  time  of  my  last  visit,  nine  months  before. 
A  little  more  ash  had  accumulated  here  and  there,  and  some  of  it  had 
been  taken  off  elsewhere ;  but  the  ruins  were  the  same  battered,  crum- 
bling walls,  unchanged  save  that  they  had  gained  in  color  through  the 
washing  off  of  the  ash-mud  that  plastered  and  cloaked  their  vertical 
sides.  In  a  few  places  excavations  were  being  made  to  recover 
"treasure"  or  to  locate  sites,  but  the  prowlers  among  the  dead  were 
few  and  what  was  recovered  was  in  most  cases  insignificant.  I  turned 
over  some  rubble-masses  beneath  which  "caked"  and  burnt  papers 
were  projecting,  and  found  that  I  was  dealing  with  a  lesson  in  geology, 
and,  strangely  enough,  with  one  that  taught  of  volcanoes  and  volcanic 
phenomena — several  pages  of  manuscript,  possibly  escaped  from  the 
Lycee  or  the  Communal  College,  covered  with  teachings  of  Vesuvius, 
Cotopaxi  and  Etna  (and  of  Pelee?).  It  may  be  that  those  papers 
were  dictated  by  the  impending  storm  of  Pelee,  but  who  can  now  tell? 
The  fragment  of  one  of  the  few  books  recovered  from  Saint-Pierre— 
whose  precious  brown  pages  I  owe  to  a  friend — deals  likewise  with 
volcanic  phenomena.  It  is  the  "L'Enfant  du  Vesuve,"  supplemented 
with  a  very  full  account  of  the  destruction  of  Pompeii  and  with  a  care- 
fully rendered  translation  of  both  of  Pliny's  letters. 

One  significant  change  had  come  over  Saint-Pierre.  It  was  no 
longer  an  absolute  desert,  for  little  colonies  of  ants  and  other  insects 
were  inhabiting  the  ruins  and  the  land-snail  had  come  to  live  with 
them.  Green  creepers  and  many  plants  with  bright  flowers  here  and 
there  hung  about  the  battered  masonry,  and  from  some  of  the  old 
gardens  rose  up  stocks  of  the  chou  Caraibien  and  the  banana.  And 

11 


THE  TOWER   OF   PELEE 

even  the  few  trees  that  had  been  left  standing  on  the  surrounding 
heights,  and  thought  to  be  dead,  had  sprouted  out  new  leaves  and 
given  a  new  sunshine  to  the  landscape.  Well  up  on  the  volcanic  slope, 
beyond  the  Roxelane,  and  quite  to  the  Riviere  des  Peres,  these  signs 
of  returning  vegetation  were  apparent,  and  on  one  side  of  the  Roxe- 
lane itself  everything  was  green.  But,  after  all,  it  was  more  the  imme- 
diate foreground  that  gave  these  signs  of  resuscitation,  for  farther 
beyond,  and  below  the  hanging  volcanic  cloud,  the  grays  were  as  gray 
as  ever,  and  the  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  choked  with  the  immense 
amount  of  debris  that  had  been  thrown  into  it,  was  white  like  snow 
with  the  new  ash  that  is  periodically  being  swept  over  its  course. 

At  Morne  Rouge,  which  fell  in  the  storm  of  August  30,  not  a  house 
remained  inhabited.  The  beautiful  church  under  whose  partially  lifted 
roof  good  Pere  Mary  had  sought  refuge  for  nearly  his  last  hours,  still 
stands  with  its  foot  in  the  ash.  My  attendant  climbed  into  the  belfry 
and  tolled  the  bells  that  hung  uninjured  from  the  posts.  It  was  the 
voice  in  the  wilderness,  for  there  were  none  to  listen  to  it  but  ourselves. 
Perhaps  far  away  on  the  hill-sides,  where  specks  of  cottages  appeared 
in  the  surrounding  green,  some  may  have  recognized  the  beautiful 
resonant  tones. 

The  exquisite  woodland  that  previous  to  August  30  bordered  most 
of  the  road  between  here  and  Ajoupa-Bouillon,  stood  out  now  as  ragged 
tree-trunks,  spectres  in  the  destroyed  landscape,  with  naked  arms  and 
upturned  roots,  begging,  as  it  were,  from  the  new  sunlight  that  sur- 
rounded them.  Here  and  there  the  eye  fell  upon  the  returning  fronds 
of  the  tree-fern  and  clumps  of  bamboo,  on  the  melastome  and  broad- 
leaved  heliconia;  but  they  were  merely  visions  of  what  had  been 
before.  Miles  away  over  the  landscape  the  eye  still  caught  the  images 
of  the  wreck  and  ruin  which  that  fearful  blast  of  the  late  August  day 
had  wrought.  Mountain  slope  and  valley  were  swept  alike,  and  even 
upon  the  ascending  heights  beyond  the  Capot  the  scars  of  destruction 
remained  luminously  implanted.  A  wayfarer  at  Ajoupa-Bouillon,  who 
had  lost  all  that  was  dear  to  him,  pointed  out  to  me  a  spot  on  the 
open  road  where  five  of  the  village  inhabitants,  who  had  taken  refuge 
under  a  culvert,  succeeded  in  weathering  the  storm,  while  almost  every- 
thing about  them  was  hurled  to  annihilation.  I  myself  noted  with 
considerable  interest  that  many  of  the  wayside  shrines,  whose  faces 
were  turned  somewhat  off  from  the  direct  path  of  the  tornadic  storm, 
retained  their  contents  almost  undisturbed.  The  goblets,  though  filled 

12 


THE   TOWER   OF   PBLEE 

with  ash,  were  intact,  and  the  images  were  largely  so.  At  this  point, 
evidently,  the  destroying  blast  had  lost  much  of  its  force,  but  on  other 
lines,  for  far  distances  beyond,  there  would  seem  to  have  been  little 
diminution  to  its  power. 

From  another  of  the  village  inhabitants  I  obtained  a  graphic 
account  of  the  awful  hours  that  preceded  the  fatal  explosion, — hours 
that  followed  immediately  upon  the  time  when  my  own  little  party 
left  the  upper  volcanic  slope, — of  the  black,  but  luminous  night,  the 
deafening  roar  of  the  volcano,  and  the  final  and  terribly  swift  oncoming 
of  the  destroying  cloud.  I  was  especially  interested  in  his  description 
of  the  electric  characteristics  of  this  cloud,  the  short  and  rapid  dis- 
charges and  incessant  crackling  being,  as  the  narrator  stated,  only 
comparable  to  feu  d' 'artifice,  an  observation  that  had  already  before 
been  made  in  connection  with  the  Pelee  cloud  of  May  8,  and  which 
only  further  confirmed  me  in  the  belief  I  have  elsewhere  expressed 
that  electric  discharges  must  have  played  an  important  part  in  the 
destruction  of  human  life,  both  here  and  at  Saint-Pierre. 

As  on  my  former  visits,  I  made  my  head-quarters  on  the  north- 
eastern side  of  the  island,  to  windward  of  the  volcano.  The  great 
sugar-plants  of  Vive,  Leyritz,  and  Basse-Pointe  had  once  more  set 
their  wheels  going,  and  it  seemed  that  for  some  time  at  least  a  cheerful 
life  might  again  replace  the  dismal  depression  which  months  of  despair 
had  brought  on.  The  old  score  against  the  volcano  was  for  the  moment 
wiped  out.  The  proprietors  and  gerants  had  tired  of  the  uncertainties 
of  volcanic  action,  and  between  abandoning  their  estates  absolutely 
or  transporting  what  little  could  be  transported  elsewhere,  and  re- 
maining to  face  possible  death  from  an  uncertain  eruption,  they  chose 
the  latter  course,  as  perhaps  most  persons  in  their  unhappy  position 
would  also  have  done. 

My  window  in  the  capacious  Clerc  mansion  at  Vive  opened  out 
upon  a  clear  prospect  over  the  summit  of  Pelee,  and  at  times  when 
there  was  little  ''volcanic  cloud"  hovering  about,  which  was  much  less 
often  the  case  than  the  reverse,  it  gave  a  fine  view  of  the  surmounting 
giant  obelisk.  Several  times  during  the  nights  of  my  stay  I  was 
tempted  to  pass  to  the  window  and  follow  with  a  powerful  glass  the 
activities  of  the  volcano.  There  was,  however,  little  beyond  landscape 
prospect  to  reward  the  search,  except  on  the  evening  of  June  12,  when 
the  base  of  the  tower,  in  its  southwest  corner,  was  brilliantly  luminous, 
being  fed  with  volcanic  fire  through  the  interstices  and  rifts  that  pene- 

13 


THE   TOWER  OF  PELEE 

trated  the  column.  It  was  a  beautiful  spectacle.  The  fiery  form  ap- 
peared shortly  after  sunset,  and  it  prompted  me  to  make  an  ascent  of 
the  mountain  on  the  following  morning. 

On  June  13,  in  company  with  one  of  the  officers  of  the  French 
Scientific  Commission,  I  made  my  fourth  ascent  of  Pelee.  The  passing 
night  promised  everything.  A  few  high  clouds  hovered  about  the 
blue  and  receding  mo rnes  that  stretched  off  towards  Carbet,  but  over 
the  volcano  itself  there  was  nothing,  and  the  great  obelisk,  its  base  fiery 
red  with  molten  lava  that  was  being  poured  into  it,  stood  out  in  bold 
relief  against  the  green-blue  western  sky.  We  left  our  quarters  early, 
so  as  to  gain  upon  the  clouds  that  viciously  gather  about  the  summit ; 
but  the  clouds  had  preceded  us,  and  already  at  the  breakfast  hour,  by 
which  time  we  had  reached  the  former  summit,  everything  was  wrapt 
in  cloud  and  mist,  and  little  was  visible  beyond  ourselves.  We  suc- 
ceeded in  steering  a  course  across  what  had  before  been  the  basin  of 
the  Lac  des  Palmistes,  and  in  a  few  minutes  stood  upon  the  edge  of 
the  great  crater.  Everything  was  gray  within, — not  silent,  however, 
for  avalanches  of  rock  were  being  precipitated  and  tumbled  about  in 
ruthless  manner,  and  an  occasional  ominous  roar  told  that  the  spirit 
of  the  mountain  had  not  entirely  departed.  For  the  better  part  of  six 
hours  we  vainly  strove  to  penetrate  the  sea  of  cloud  and  fog  that 
hung  ahead  of  us.  Each  coming  gust  seemed  to  give  us  the  chance 
for  which  we  were  waiting,  but  the  rising  crater-vapors  kept  the  basin 
full,  and  even  under  a  clear  sky  they  allowed  only  "memories  of  a 
landscape"  to  escape.  Although  in  no  way  unbearably  hot,  I  found 
the  crater  rim  uncomfortably  warm  and  humid ;  it  seemed  to  me  more 
so  than  on  my  earlier  visits.  The  actual  temperature  was  only  85 
degrees,  however. 

We  found  the  entire  depression  of  the  Lac  des  Palmistes  filled 
up  and  over  by  volcanic  ejecta, — sand,  pumice,  and  boulders,  perhaps 
in  greater  part  the  product  of  the  August  30  eruption.  There  was 
now  a  gentle  and  nearly  uniform  slope  up  to  the  crater-border,  and 
what  remained  of  the  Morne  de  la  Croix  was  hardly  more  than  a 
rising  knoll  or  knob.  The  split-boulders,  or  what  have  been  called 
"bread-crust  bombs,"  were  very  numerous,  measuring  in  all  sizes 
from  small  balls  to  masses  two  and  three  feet  in  diameter,  and  were 
lying  freely  scattered  around.  What  surprised  us  greatly  were  the 
swarms  of  a  bottle-green  coccinella  that  had  made  a  home  on  the 
summit.  The  tiny  insects  appeared  to  be  about  in  myriads,  and  in  an 

14 


THE   TO  WEE   OF   PELEE 

instant  almost  our  clothing  was  covered  by  hundreds.  What  they 
found  on  the  barren  summit  to  attract  in  this  manner  is  one  of  those 
mysteries  of  nature  which  we  found  impossible  to  fathom.  The  species, 
which  we  failed  to  determine,  was  probably  the  common  form  of  the 
island.  More  singular  yet,  we  came  across  a  stray  bull-frog  of  large 
size,  whose  excursion  to  the  top  summit  was  equally  inexplicable. 

From  the  crater's  edge  we  could  at  times  look  down  to  the  very 
bottom,  but  the  shifting  vapors  were  such  as  to  give  us  only  flashing 
vistas,  and  for  many  hours  we  could  frame  no  distinctive  picture  of 
what  we  saw.  Steam  jets  were  issuing  at  many  points,  and  with  these 
curled  out  the  blue  puffs  of  sulphur.  In  a  very  rough  way  I  estimaied 
that  the  depth  below  where  we  were  standing  could  not  have  been  less 
than  300-350  feet,  which  is  very  nearly  twice  what  had  been  assumed 
by  some  of  the  observers  of  the  French  Scientific  Commission.  A  later 
photographic  measurement  would  seem  to  confirm  my  determinations. 

The  clouds  continued  to  move,  to  break,  and  to  unite,  and  for  a 
long  time  it  seemed  as  though  we  should  be  obliged  to  miss  the  object 
of  our  search  entirely.  There  were  brief  spaces  of  atmospheric  lucidity, 
but  they  were  in  the  wrong  quarter  for  us,  and  only  showed  up  with 
transcendent  beauty  the  landscape  that  was  back  of  us  and  down  the 
mountain.  We  were  quite  close  to  the  edge  of  the  crater,  hardly  three 
feet  intervening,  and  vainly  peered  through  the  sea  of  mist  and  vapor 
to  obtain  a  single  glimpse  of  the  avalanches  of  rock  that  were  being 
tumbled  down  ahead  of  us,  seemingly  in  space  and  from  space,  whose 
roar  went  out  like  the  distant  flow  of  thunder.  We  listened  and  heard 
everything;  we  strained  our  eyes  and  saw  nothing.  Quelle  mauvaise 
chance!  uttered  my  associate,  and  I  echoed  it  most  heartily. 

Shortly  before  two  o'clock  the  opportunity  for  which  we  had  so 
impatiently  waited  seemed  finally  to  arrive.  Clouds  and  vapors  died 
down  to  one  side,  and  the  great  tower,  its  crown  hanging  at  a  dizzy 
height  above,  began  to  unfold.  Piece  by  piece  was  added  to  it- 
purple,  brown,  and  gray — until  at  last  it  stood  abreast  of  us  virtually 
uncovered  from  base  to  summit.  "Look !"  I  shouted  to  my  companion, 
and  my  words  failed  me  for  the  magnificence  of  the  view  that  pre- 
sented itself.  The  spectacle  was  one  of  overwhelming  grandeur,  and 
we  stood  for  some  moments  awed  and  silent  in  the  shadow  of  this 
most  impressive  of  mountain  forms.  Nature's  monument  dedicated  to 
the  30,000  dead  who  lay  in  the  silent  city  below,  it  rose  up  a  huge  mono- 
lith, 830  feet  above  the  newly  constructed  summit  of  the  volcano,  and 

15 


THE  TOWBE   OF  PELEE 

5020  feet  above  the  Caribbean  surface, — a  unique  and  incomparable 
type  in  our  planet's  wonderland. 

We  spent  about  two  hours  and  a  half  on  the  summit  after  the  first 
rifting  of  the  clouds,  and  had  thus  a  full  opportunity  to  study  from 
most  sides,  even  if  not  absolutely  close  at  hand,  the  general  charac- 
teristics of  the  giant  tower  and  of  its  setting.  M.  Guinoiseau,  who  had 
at  this  time  made  the  ascent  of  the  volcano  perhaps  more  than  twelve 
times,  was  as  enthusiastic  over  the  scene  as  I  was  myself;  but  he 
reported  that  the  volcano  was  in  an  unusual  state  of  eruptivity,  a  not 
exactly  comforting  assurance  to  the  plain  folk  who  had  already  come 
to  know  the  burning  mountain.  However,  we  saw  little  to  disturb  us 
in  our  studies,  and  it  was  rapidly  nearing  five  o'clock  when  we  began 
our  descent  of  the  cindery  slopes.  Shortly  before  seven  o'clock  we 
again  entered  the  hospitable  portals  of  the  Usine  Vive. 


16 


II 

THE    TO  WEE    OF    PELEE 

No  other  name,  it  seems  to  me,  more  appropriately  conveys  the 
picture  of  the  giant  core  of  rock,  nearly  1000  feet  in  height  at  the  time 
of  its  greatest  development  and  350-500  feet  thick  at  the  base,  which 
Pelee  had  bodily  lifted  and  pushed  out  from  its  summit  during  a 
period  of  a  full  year  and  more.  This  extraordinary  obelisk  of  lava, 
like  a  veritable  "Tower  of  Babel,"  whose  apex  at  the  time  of  my 
visit,  the  middle  of  June,  1903,  reached  a  position  5020  feet  above  the 
sea,  transfixed  the  newly-formed  cone  of  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec, 
and  rose  to  all  purposes  vertically  above  it,  the  two  structures,  products 
of  the  eruptions  beginning  in  April,  1902,  having  a  full  height  of 
approximately  2300-2400  feet.  As  seen  from  the  east-northeast,  or 
the  quarter  of  Assier  and  Vive,  it  presented  the  aspect  of  an  acute 
pyramid ;  seen  from  the  south  or  southwest  it  gave  the  appearance  of 
a  conical  spire,  complicated  by  secondary  spires,  needles,  or  fingers, 
and  showing  a  split  or  indented  apical  summit ;  while  from  the  north- 
east and  north  it  rose  up  a  gigantic  and  nearly  parallel-sided  tower 
or  fortress.  From  whichever  side  seen,  it  was  an  object  of  sublime 
magnificence;  and  in  its  condition  of  vapor  clouds  blowing  out  from 
its  base  and  from  the  cone  that  supported  it,  with  blue  sulphur  smoke 
curling  its  way  along  with  these,  it  presented  a  spectacle  of  almost 
overwhelming  grandeur  and  one  of  terrorizing  effect  which  could 
hardly  be  matched  elsewhere.  None  of  the  grand  scenes  of  nature 
which  I  had  before  seen — the  Matterhorn,  the  Domes  of  the  Yosemite, 
the  colossus  of  Popocatepetl  soaring  above  the  shoulder  of  Ixtacci- 
huatl,  or  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado — impressed  me  to  the 
extent  that  did  the  view  of  Pelee 's  tower,  from  the  crater-rim,  on  the 
afternoon  of  June  13. 

The  tower  was  arched  slightly  in  the  direction  of  Saint-Pierre,— 
i.e.,  towards  the  southwest,  where  the  surface  was  scraggy,  and  appar- 
ently scoriaceous  or  slaggy,  the  result,  doubtless,  of  the  numerous 
basal  eruptions  which  took  place  at  or  near  the  point  of  contact  with 
the  supporting  cone.  The  surface  on  the  opposite  side — that  turned 

17 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

towards  Assier — was,  on  the  other  hand,  smooth,  almost  polished  in 
places,  and  longitudinally  grooved  from  base  nearly  to  summit.  This 
smoothness  and  graving  of  the  surface  were  certainly  due  to  attrition 
against  the  encasing  rock  or  "mould"  which  formed  the  wall  to  the 
channel  of  exit,  and  the  curving  over  of  the  mass  to  one  side  would 
seem  to  point  to  extrusion  from  beneath  a  somewhat  vaulted  or  curved 
casing.  One  could  well  compare  the  structure  and  its  method  of 
escape  to  a  core  of  paint  issuing  by  pressure  from  an  oil-tube.  The 
general  surface-covering  was  in  color  ruddy  gray,  brown  and  pur- 
plish in  part,  but  on  the  smooth  face  it  was  nearly  white,  a  condition 
probably  in  some  way  associated  with  the  rubbing  on  that  side. 

As  to  the  fundamental  and  inner  construction  of  this  remarkable 
volcanic  appendage  our  knowledge  remains  in  a  measure  conjectural. 
As  seen  with  a  powerful  glass  from  a  point  of  nearest  approach, 
perhaps  700  feet,  the  rock  appeared  "burnt-out,"  like  a  furnace- 
product  ;  and  the  noise  given  out  by  the  falling  particles  and  boulders 
was  generally  like  that  of  falling  clinkers,  which  might  have  led  to  the 
supposition  that  the  mass  was  on  the  whole  cavernous.  But  its  rigid 
adherence  and  resistance  to  a  prodigious  crushing  strain  lend  little 
countenance  to  this  view.  The  noise  from  the  more  imposing  dis- 
charges of  dejecta  was  like  that  of  rolling  thunder,  at  times  barely 
distinguishable  from  the  roar  of  the  volcano  itself,  and  could  hardly 
have  been  produced  otherwise  than  by  the  avalanching  of  compact  rock. 

It  has  been  surmised,  or  at  least  suggested,  that  the  interior  of 
the  tower  might  have  been  hollow,  with  fluidal  lava,  hidden  from  view 
by  the  massive  outer  walls,  contained  within.  This  condition  is  not 
conceivable.  Had  such  a  chimney  with  an  enclosed  flowing  magma 
really  existed,  there  would  certainly  have  been  lava  overflows  at  one 
time  or  another.  On  the  other  hand,  that  the  tower  was  rifted  and 
had  irregular  passages  through  it  or  through  parts  of  it,  into  which 
lava  was  at  times  injected,  is  certain;  and  the  members  of  the  Lacroix 
mission  on  more  than  one  occasion  noticed  areas  and  lines  of  incan- 
descence in  the  basal  portion  of  the  core,  which  they  associated  with 
flowing  lava-masses.  On  the  night  preceding  my  fourth  ascent  of  the 
volcano,  June  12,  1903,  the  southwest  base  of  the  tower  was  resplen- 
dently  luminous,  made  so  either  by  actually  rising  lava  or  by  a  partial 
remelting  of  that  portion  of  the  structure.  From  a  distance  of  a  few 
miles,  whence  this  magnificent  spectacle  was  seen,  my  powerful  glass 
failed  to  determine  which  of  the  two  conditions  existed, — a  matter 

18 


of  little  consequence,  as  in  either  event  molten  lava  was  in  close 
association. 

That  some  of  the  rifts  completely  traversed  the  tower  from  base 
to  summit,  I  had  the  opportunity  fully  to  satisfy  myself,  for  on  the 
morning  of  June  15,  when  skirting  the  northern  and  western  shores 
of  the  island,  a  thin  steam-pennant  could  be  seen  to  be  continuously 
issuing  from  the  apical  summit;  in  other  words,  the  volcano  was 
gently  "smoking"  at  the  top.  The  issuing  vapor  was  perfectly  white, 
and  it  seemed  to  carry  little  or  no  ash  with  it.  From  the  same  apical 
summit  a  number  of  incandescent  balls  are  reported  to  have  been  shot 
out  on  the  night  of  March  26,  1903.  • 

The  ascent  of  this  remarkable  core  of  rock,  the  general  nature  of 
which  was  first  determined  by  Prof.  Lacroix,  was  due  to  processes 
similar  to  those  which  produce  the  outwelling  of  lava  in  the  ordinary 
form  of  volcanoes, — i.e.,  to  interior  volcanic  stress.  Despite  its  colos- 
sal dimensions,  the  tower  was  heaved  bodily  upward,  receiving  new 
accretions  of  matter  almost  entirely  from  below.  The  most  cursory 
examination  of  the  relations  existing  would  immediately  point  to  this 
form  of  growth  and  development,  but  the  carefully  conducted  angle- 
measurements  and  observations  of  contour  made  by  the  representa- 
tives at  two  stations  of  the  French  Scientific  Commission  leave  no  pos- 
sibility for  doubt  in  this  matter,  and  they  further  furnish  us  with  data 
touching  the  rate  of  growth.  The  consideration  of  the  depth  to  which 
this  giant  monument  descended  solid  into  the  volcano  would  be  inter- 
esting were  there  any  way  of  reaching  the  problem,  but  for  the  present 
there  would  seem  to  be  none  such.  It  is  perhaps  enough  to  say  at  this 
time  that  this  depth  must  have  been  considerable,  otherwise  the  column 
could  not  have  stood  through  the  exploding  condition  of  the  mountain ; 
the  depth,  again,  may  have  been  very  great.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
problem  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  molten  or  incandescent  lava 
did  at  times  rise  quite  to  the  level  of  the  insertion  of  the  monument  in 
its  base. 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  importance  geographically  to  know  when 
this  great  tower  of  rock  first  appeared  and  to  ascertain  through  this 
fact  its  relation  to  the  great  eruptions  of  May,  June,  July,  and  August 
(1902).  Prof.  Lacroix,  in  an  article  published  in  the  Depeche  Coloniale 
(April  30,  1903),  states  that  the  basal  cone  of  the  volcano  had  been 
terminated  by  a  needle  since  the  middle  of  October,  and  presumably 
this  is  about  the  period  when  it  was  first  seen  by  him.  But  there  can 

19 


hardly  be  a  question  that  its  formation  or  first  appearance  was  of 
much  earlier  date,  for  on  August  24,  1902,  almost  a  week  before  the 
second  death-dealing  eruption,  a  vertical  (although  comparatively 
short)  needle  was  distinctly  seen  by  me  from  the  southwest  side,  and 
it  appears  in  my  photographs  taken  on  that  day.  Indeed,  I  remark  in 
my  report,*  that  it  seemed  to  me  likely  that  the  two  glowing  masses 
of  fire  which  shone  down  from  the  summit,  like  red  beacon-lights,  in 
the  morning  of  August  22,  emanated  from  the  two  (incandescent) 
horns  that  capped  the  summit  of  the  mountain.  One  of  these  pro- 
truding masses,  or  "horns,"  as  I  have  called  them,  was  seemingly  set 
at  a  broad  angle  to  the  other. 

In  an  earlier  report  on  my  observations  and  experiences,!  pub- 
lished shortly  after  my  return  from  my  first  visit  to  Martinique,  use 
is  made  of  a  drawing  of  the  crater  by  Mr.  George  Varian,  an  artist 
associate  who  was  with  me  when  we  first  reached  the  rim  of  the  still 
very  active  crater,  and  whose  extreme  faithfulness  in  the  delineation 
of  nature  I  frequently  had  occasion  to  admire.  In  this  drawing  a 
great  core  of  rock  is  made  to  appear  centrally  in  the  crater  and  rising 
somewhat  above  the  crater's  rim.  In  my  own  description  (p.  365)  I 
refer  to  these  points  in  the  crateral  structure  as  "the  central  core 
of  burnt-out  cinder  masses,  topped  by  enormous  white  rocks,  whose 
brilliant  incandescence  flashed  out  the  beacon-lights  which  were 
observed  from  the  sea  some  days  after  the  fatal  8th,  and  even  at  our 
later  day  illumined  the  night  crown  of  the  volcano  with  a  glow  of 
fire."  When  at  that  early  day  we  stood  on  the  crater's  edge,  the 
activity  of  the  volcano  was  still  such  that  we  could  obtain  but  momen- 
tary glimpses  of  the  interior  of  the  crater  and  of  the  crater-walls,  and 
it  was  impossible  to  shape  constructively  the  relations  of  the  parts 
as  they  passed  before  us  in  fleeting  shadows.  After  seeing  one  of  my 
own  photographs  and  the  photographs  of  investigators  who  were  on 
the  volcano  after  I  had  left  it,  I  became  doubtful  as  to  the  accuracy 
of  Mr.  Varian 's  drawing,  the  more  so  as  it  depicted  a  structure  that 
could  not  be  brought  into  relation  with  any  known  volcanic  feature, 
and  in  my  later  publication  I  thought  fit  to  omit  the  illustration.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  at  this  time  that  the  sketch  of  my  artist  asso- 
ciate was  an  accurate  one,  and  that  "the  central  mass  of  jagged  white 

*  "  Mont  Pelee  and  the  Tragedy  of  Martinique,"  p.  163. 
t  McClure's  Magazine,  August,  1902. 

20 


rocks"  was  already  as  early  as  May  31  the  embryo  of  the  great  Pelee 
tower.  That  it  did  not  survive  into  the  later  day  is  certain,  for  on 
June  20,  when  Dr.  E.  0.  Hovey  took  his  photograph  of  the  central  cone, 
it  no  longer  appeared.*  It  was  probably  overthrown  in  the  forceful 
eruption  of  June  6.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  it  reap- 
peared within  the  period  of  a  few  weeks,  for  it  is  distinctly  shown  in 
a  photograph  taken  on  July  6,  which  is  published  by  Dr.  Jaggar.f  It 
should  be  said  that  on  May  31,  1902,  the  sound  of  falling  "clinkers" 
(rocks,  etc.)  was  precisely  that  which  we  heard  on  June  13,  1903, 
emanating  from  the  falling  and  exploded  debris  of  the  obelisk. 

The  giant  tower  at  the  time  of  my  visit  reached  an  absolute  eleva- 
tion above  sea-level  of  5020  feet,  the  determination  made  by  M.  Gui- 
noiseau  from  Assier,  with  which  a  less  accurate  Abney-level  measure- 
ment made  by  me  from  Morne  Rouge  closely  agrees.  Its  height  was 
on  May  31  5200  feet,  but  it  lost  on  that  day  through  breakage  180  feet 
of  its  summit.  It  frequently  underwent  partial  decapitation,  and  the 
form  was  thus  largely  disturbed,  the  summit  or  apex  particularly 
suffering.  During  the  four  days  preceding  June  15 — within  the  period 
of  my  latest  visit  to  the  volcano — the  ascent,  as  determined  by  angle 
measurements  made  by  M.  Guinoiseau  at  Assier,  was  six  metres;  in 
the  eight  days  preceding  June  7,  ten  metres.:}:  However  incredible 
such  a  rapid  rise  may  appear,  the  facts  that  are  presented  in  the  first 
period  of  the  tower's  history  are  yet  far  more  imposing  than  those 
of  this  later  day,  and  of  a  kind  to  impress  upon  the  observer,  in  a 
wholly  exceptional  way,  the  sense  of  sovereign  grandeur  of  nature. 
Were  it  not  for  the  immediate  object  placed  in  full  view,  there  would 
be  few,  even  among  extreme  cataclysmists,  who  would  be  prepared  to 
believe  that  for  a  period  of  a  month  or  more  so  gigantic  a  structure 
as  the  Pelee  tower  could  have  been  heaved  up  at  an  average  daily  rate 
of  from  20  to  25  or  even  25  to  30  feet.  As  has  already  been  stated,  the 
first  appearance  of  the  forming  tower  or  spine  as  noted  by  the  French 
Scientific  Commission  was  on  or  about  October  15,  1902,  and  by  the 
close  of  November,  despite  partial  breakages  of  the  summit,  this 
extraordinary  structure  had  risen  to  approximately  1500  metres  (4920 


*  Bulletin  Amer.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.,  xvi.,  pi.  44,  Fig.  2.     See  also  a  more  recent 
paper  by  Dr.  Hovey  in  the  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  Oct.,  1903,  p.  271. 
t  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  Jan.,  1904. 
t  M.  Giraud,  in  L'Opinion,  of  Martinique,  June,  1903. 

21 


THE  TOWBE   OF  PELEE 

feet)  above  sea-level.*  Of  this  total  height  about  800  feet  fell  to  the 
tower  alone,  a  rise,  therefore,  of  this  amount,  with  breakages,  in  from 
35  to  40  days.f 

The  history  of  the  tower  since  the  early  days  of  December,  1902, 
is  one  of  frequent  breakages  and  of  an  almost  continuous  repair,  so 
far  as  mere  elevation  is  concerned,  resulting  from  progressive  and 
virtually  continuous  upheaval.  Marked  changes  of  outline,  particu- 
larly as  seen  from  the  east  and  the  southeast,  followed  the  major 
disruptions,  and  to  that  extent  that  it  has  been  made  difficult  to  har- 
monize even  photographic  views  taken  at  different  times  from  nearly 
identical  positions.  In  the  first  week  of  December  the  height  of  the 
tower  was  lessened  by  60-70  metres,  but  this  loss  was  made  good  in  a 
very  few  days,  and  despite  successive  losses  the  tower  on  December 
16  rose  to  within  70  metres  of  its  greatest  height.  Through,  or  accom- 
panying, the  rather  severe  eruption  of  January  25,  1903,  there  was  a 
further  loss  of  30  metres  (at  first  reported  to  be  250  metres),  and  at 
this  time  it  was  observed  that  the  volcano  was  capped  by  two  needles.:}: 
This  interesting  fact  is  significant  in  its  relation  to  my  own  obser- 
vation that  two  "horns"  or  needles  projected  from  the  newly-formed 
cone  on  August  24  of  the  year  previous.  On  March  13,  the  date  of 
Lacroix's  departure  from  the  island,  the  tower  had  risen  to  1568 
metres  (5143  feet),  overtopping  the  remains  of  the  Morne  de  la  Croix 
by  1009  feet ;  §  but  at  the  end  of  two  weeks,  in  the  eruption  of  March 
26,  when  it  is  reported  that  incandescent  "balls"  were  shot  out  from 
the  actual  apex  of  the  tower,  it  again  lost  25  metres  (82  feet)  .ft  Seem- 
ingly the  extreme  height  that  was  reached  by  this  extraordinary  vol- 
canic structure  was  almost  exactly  5200  feet  on  May  30-31,  1903.  At 
that  time,  as  I  was  informed  by  M.  Guinoiseau,  another  eruption  re- 

*  Comptes-Rendus,  Dec.  1  and  Dec.  29, 1902. 

t  Major  W.  M.  Hodder,  of  the  Royal  Engineer  Corps,  from  observations  made  at 
Morne  Fortune,  on  the  island  of  St.  Lucia,  nearly  60  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  the  cone 
of  Pelee,  determined  the  absolute  height  of  Pelee  on  Nov.  26,  to  be  5032  feet,  about  100 
feet  greater  than  was  reported  by  the  French  Commission  (communication  to  Dr.  E.  0. 
Hovey,  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  Oct.,  1903).  The  low  angle  of  measurement  probably 
makes  this  determination  less  accurate  than  the  French. 

t  Comptes-Rendus,  Feb.  16,  1903. 

§  Depeche  Coloniale,  April  30,  1903. 

ff  The  elevation  of  5143  feet  is  almost  exactly  that  which  was  found  by  Hovey  on 
March  25:  height  above  crater-rim,  point  of  observation,  1174  feet;  height  of  crater- 
rim,  3969  feet  above  sea-level. 

22 


THE  TO/WEE   OF   PELE1 

moved  180  feet.    There  can  be  no  doubt  that  had  there  been  no  apical 
disruptions  the  tower  would  have  reached  a  full  thousand  feet  higher. 

On  comparing  my  photographs  taken  from  the  crater-rim  on  June 
13,  1903,  with  those  of  the  French  Commission  and  others,  especially 
the  very  beautiful  ones  of  Dr.  Hovey,  one  is  struck  with  the  remarkable 
changes  of  outline  which  the  tower  had  undergone, — changes  that 
could  have  resulted  from  breakage  alone,  except  perhaps  at  the  imme- 
diate base.  From  no  point  of  view  on  the  old  basin  of  the  Lac  des 
Palmistes  could  I  obtain  a  picture  of  the  tower  that  was  more  than 
suggestive  of  what  appears  in  the  photographs  of  Hovey  taken  eleven 
weeks  before  (on  March  26),  and  which  illustrate  his  article  on  "The 
New  Cone  of  Mont  Pelee. ' '  *  Equally  ' '  irreconcilable ' '  are  still  earlier 
pictures  which  I  found  in  possession  of  local  photographers  in  Fort-de- 
France. 

The  numerous  breakages  and  decapitations  which  the  tower  under-v 
goes  naturally  suggest  that  the  materials  of  its  construction,  while 
sufficiently  solid  and  resisting  to  permit  the  mass  to  hold  its  weight, 
cannot  well  have  had  the  consistency  of  granitoid  or  plutonic  rock  or 
of  lithoid  lava, — at  least  not  in  its  outer  parts.  I  suspect,  and  it  has 
already  been  stated  before  me,  that  much  of  the  exterior  at  least  was 
pumiceo-vitreous  in  texture,  and  sufficiently  so  as  to  permit  of  easy 
dislodgments,  even  as  the  result  of  jarring  alone.  It  is  certainly  a 
curious  fact  that  almost  every  moderately  severe  eruption  threw  down 
a  portion  of  the  summit,  besides  at  different  times  opening  great  lon 
tudinal  fissures.  Such  a  cleft  was  opened  by  the  eruption  of  November 
18,  1902,  and  through  it  a  slice  of  the  tower  measuring  nearly  300  feet 
in  height  (90  metres)  was  removed.  Other  fissures  followed  rapidly 
in  the  early  part  of  1903,  producing  those  modifications  in  the  tower 
which  Major  Hodder  has  likened  to  the  change  from  a  "huge  light- 
house" to  the  form  of  a  church-steeple.  The  surface  aspect  of  a  large 
part  of  the  northern  and  western  faces  of  the  tower  gave  clearly  the 
picture  of  a  slaggy  (cavernous  or  pumiceous,  it  might  be  called  in  a 
certain  sense)  structure,  or  at  least  of  something  that  was  not  compactly 
solid ;  and  the  lines  of  fracturing  would  seem  to  reveal  something  of 
like  nature.  At  the  same  time,  too  much  dependence  cannot  properly 
be  placed  upon  this  surface-appearance,  as  the  limits  of  size  for  indi- 
vidual parts  were  apt  to  be  misjudged  in  the  vastness  of  the  whole, 


*  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  Oct.,  1903,  cuts  facing  p.  276. 
23 


THE  TOWEK   OF   PELEE 

and  to  give  impressions  from  which  false  conclusions  could  easily  be 
drawn.  It  was  more  than  regrettable  to  me  that  at  the  time  of  my 
visit  in  June,  1903,  the  condition  of  activity  was  again  such  as  to 
prevent  me  from  descending  into  the  crateral  hollow  and  of  examining 
the  numerous  blocks  that  were  almost  continuously  being  dislodged 
from  the  tower. 

In  considering  the  question  of  the  disruptions  and  summit-falls 
or  decapitations  of  the  tower,  the  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that 
the  entire  height  was  at  times  penetrated  by  steam,  which  rose  not 
through  a  central  or  permanent  chimney,  but  along  one  or  more  rift- 
passages.  As  I  have  elsewhere  noted,  the  ascending  steam  was  ob- 
served by  me,  during  two  hours  or  more,  to  pass  out  distinctly  from 
the  actual  apical  summit  in  a  delicate  line  of  pennant.*  It  may  be  that 
it  was  precisely  this  tower-contained  steam  which,  with  additional  force 
given  to  it  at  times  of  special  eruptions,  was  responsible  for  the  lofty 
disruptions,  as  well  as  for  the  dislocations  on  the  upper  flanks. 

While  we  are  thus  not  in  a  position  to  state  exactly  what  was 
the  inner  construction  of  the  tower,  it  is  perhaps  not  unreasonable 
to  assume  that  it  was  rigidly  solid  (whether  of  a  lithoid  or  glassy,  or 
obsidian-like,  structure)  in  its  major  part, — as  the  polished  side 
directed  towards  Assier  would  indicate,  and  the  giant  rock-masses 
hurled  into  the  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche  almost  certainly  prove,— 
and  that  a  cavernous,  slaggy,  or  pumiceous  exterior  surrounded  the 
more  solid  interior  core.  But  whatever  this  structure  may  have  been, 
it  did  not  affect  the  imposing  character  of  the  object  or  of  the  phe- 
nomenon which  it  portrayed. 

It  will  naturally  appear  to  all  who  have  reflected  upon  this  new 
manifestation  of  volcanic  activity  that  the  power  to  lift  or  even  sus- 
tain so  gigantic  a  structure  as  this  tower,  with  a  cubical  content  (even 
if  less  in  weight)  equal  to  that  of  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Egypt,  must 
have  been  prodigious.  But  the  problem  from  the  purely  geological 
side  is  merely  that  of  the  normal  volcano  pushing  up  its  great  cone 
of  molten  lava,  with  this  difference,  that  in  the  Pelee  uplift  the  element 
of  friction  enters  as  an  important  factor  in  the  calculation  of  the 
dynamics  of  the  lifting  force.  What  may  have  been  the  value  of  the 
differential,  unfortunately,  in  the  absence  of  knowledge  regarding  the 

*  Dr.  Hovey  appears  to  have  been  less  fortunate  in  his  observation,  for  he  remarks 
that  no  steam  was  ever  blown  out  from  the  top. 

24 


fixation  of  the  tower,  cannot  be  stated,  nor  even  approximately  hypothe- 
cated. Our  present  knowledge  of  volcanic  phenomena,  indeed,  does 
not  even  permit  us  to  make  a  comparison  between  the  lifting  force 
of  the  low  volcano  and  that  of  the  lofty  cone,  two  or  more  miles  in 
height. 

The  cone  that  supported  the  tower,  or  rather  through  which  the 
tower  passed,  and  which  remains  to-day,  has  been  built  up  entirely 
since  April  23,  1902.  At  the  time  of  my  latest  visit  (June,  1903)  it 
overtopped  the  general  summit  of  Pelee  by  about  200  feet,  and  had 
therefore  an  absolute  height  of  some  1600-1800  feet.  It  is  to  this 
structure,  implanted  upon  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec,  that  I  refer  in 
my  earlier  reports  as  the  "new  fragmental  cone."  Dr.  Hovey  refers 
to  it  in  the  same  relation.  The  exterior  seems  to  me  to  have  always 
been  in  great  part  a  mass  of  debris,  volcanic  ejecta  of  all  sizes,  through 
which  steam  was  puffed  at  numerous  points.  Solid  lava  ridges  pro- 
trude (or  protruded)  through  it,  and  give  to  it,  especially  in  the  south- 
east, a  ribbed  structure.  The  base  occupies  almost  the  entire  floor  of 
the  former  tarn-basin.  Prof.  Lacroix,  who  enjoyed  unusual  advan- 
tages for  the  study  of  this  seemingly  normal  volcanic  structure,  asserts 
that  the  same  is  not  a  true  fragmental  cone,  but  a  dome  or  monticule 
of  lava  without  crateral  opening,  formed  in  the  manner  of  the  famous 
pre-crateral  dome  of  Giorgios,  in  Santorin,  of  1866.  It  will  be  recalled 
that  in  the  formation  of  that  interesting  structure  there  was  an  up- 
welling  of  highly  viscous  lava,  which  simply  accumulated  in  an  irregu- 
lar bouldery  mass  about  the  opening  of  the  volcanic  chimney.  At  a 
somewhat  later,  although  still  early,  day  a  crater  opened  in  this  monti- 
cule or  dome,  and  from  it  flowed  out  streams  of  molten  lava.  I  am 
not  convinced  that  the  early  stage  of  the  Pelee  cone,  however  it  may 
have  become  modified  later  on,  was  of  this  structure.  The  photo- 
graphs that  were  taken  prior  to  August  30  show,  nearly  all  of  them, 
where  the  summit  is  at  all  visible,  a  truncated  top,  a  form  absolutely 
like  that  of  the  normal  crater-cone  and  as  much  unlike  the  monticule 
of  the  Giorgios  (or  Puy)  type.  This  is  beautifully  shown  in  the  photo- 
graph taken  by  Dr.  Hovey  on  June  20 ;  and  equally  so  in  my  own  photo- 
graphs taken  from  the  west  side  on  August  24  (1902),  which  depict 
the  volcano  "smoking"  directly  from  this  summit  chimney.  It  seems 
to  me  more  likely  that  the  conditions  of  Santorin  have  been  simply 
reversed  in  the  case  of  Pelee :  a  fragmental  cone  was  opened  first,  and 
only  later  became  plugged  by  the  rise  in  it  of  what  ultimately  became 

25 


THE   TOWER    OF   PELEE 

the  tower.  Indeed,  it  would  appear  that  the  plugging  went  on  as  a 
process  continuously  with  the  making  of  the  cone,  troubling  the  volcano 
in  its  workings,  but  yet  not  so  far  obliterating  the  structure  that  held 
it  as  to  obscure  its  relations.  The  fact  that  the  tower  passed  bodily 
through  the  cone  is  in  itself  evidence  of  a  kind  supporting  the  view 
of  a  crateral  cone.  That  the  cone  or  dome  at  a  later  period  acquired 
more  or  less  of  the  structure  that  Lacroix  ascribes  to  it,  there  can 
be  no  question. 

In  their  local  setting  the  obelisk  and  its  supporting  cone  occupied 
the  virtual  centre  of  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec  (the  erupting  crater 
of  1902),  the  floor  of  which  in  June,  1903,  had  been  brought  up  by 
infilling  to  within  300-350  feet  of  the  summit  of  the  surrounding  wall 
of  the  caldera.  The  width  of  the  space  separating  the  top  of  the  cone 
from  this  wall  was  roughly  estimated  to  be  200-250  yards,  excepting 
in  the  west,  where  the  cone  had  coalesced  with  the  slope  of  the  Petit- 
Bonhomme  (Ti-Bolhomme).  Basally  the  cone  almost  united  (did 
unite  in  places)  with  the  slope  of  the  caldera  wall,  the  discharging 
debris  constantly  narrowing  the  space  between  the  two  structures. 
During  the  time  of  my  observation  the  cone  was  in  a  fairly  active  con- 
dition, blowing  out  steam  at  numerous  points;  and  there  could  be  no 
question  that  these  issuing  steam-puffs  came  directly  from  the  interior, 
and  were  not  secondary  explosions  emanating  from  the  covering  debris. 
According  to  M.  Guinoiseau,  one  of  the  observers  of  the  French  Scien- 
tific Commission,  the  activity  at  this  time  was  particularly  accentuated, 
greater  than  it  had  been  at  any  time  since  the  month  of  January 
preceding. 

In  my  "Mont  Pelee  and  the  Tragedy  of  Martinique"  I  have  given 
a  fairly  extended  survey  of  the  Pelee  crater,  to  which  there  is  little 
to  be  added  beyond  what  is  contained  in  the  preceding  pages.  It  might 
be  noted  that  it  was  (and  is)  of  the  caldera  type, — i.e.,  with  its  par- 
tially encircling  walls  trenchantly  steep,  almost  or  quite  vertical  in 
places, — and  clearly  showing  the  lines  of  stratification  of  the  super- 
imposed fragmental  materials  (pumice,  ash,  etc.).  These  are  trav- 
ersed by  the  base  or  "dike"  of  the  Morne  de  la  Croix,  whose  andesitic 
mass  could  be  followed  by  the  eye  virtually  through  the  entire  height 
of  the  wall  (300  feet  high).*  Into  this  caldera,  the  basin  of  the  former 

*  It  should  be  stated  that  some  of  the  observers  of  the  French  Scientific  Commis- 
sion were  disposed  to  give  a  considerably  less  height  for  this  wall  (the  depth  of  the 
crater)  than  I  have  here  given. 

26 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

Etang  Sec,  was  implanted  the  new  cone,  with  its  great  transfixing 
obelisk.  It  has  been  remarked  that  on  the  western  side  the  cone  had 
united  with  the  basal  processes  of  the  Ti-Bolhomme ;  elsewhere  it  was 
surrounded  by  a  V-shaped  valley  (rainure),  the  top-width  of  which 
was  roundly  600-800  feet. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  configuration  of  the  mountain  to  give 
countenance  to  the  extended  caldera-form,  with  the  mass  of  Pelee  as 
a  centrally  rising  polygenetic  cone,  which  Stiibel  has  fancifully  con 
structed  from  the  large  French  map  of  the  island  of  Martinique,  the 
contours  of  which  have  only  distantly  approximate  relations  to  the 
actual  relief  of  the  land.  There  is  on  the  north  side  of  the  crater,  but 
absolutely  on  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  the  remains  of  an  ancient 
crateral  wall,  which  Dr.  Hovey  has  already  likened  to  the  Somma  wall 
of  the  Atrio  del  Cavallo,  but  it  bears  no  relation  to  the  contours  shown 
on  the  French  map.  It  is  a  short  way  back  from  the  edge  of  the  present 
crater,  and  its  rocks  are  partially  columnar. 


27 


Ill 

THE   AFTER    HISTORY   AND    NATURE    OF    THE    TOWER 

IN  the  destruction  of  Pelee 's  giant  tower,  and  the  entry  of  the 
volcano  into  a  new  condition  of  activity,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
features  of  the  earth's  surface  has  disappeared;  and  while  there  are 
indications  that  the  structure  might  be  replaced  by  something  similar, 
its  removal  takes  from  the  eye  of  the  geologist  an  object  illustrating 
a  unique  phase  in  the  history  of  volcanic  phenomena.  It  is  wholly 
likely  that  at  some  earlier  period  of  the  earth's  history  structures 
have  been  developed  similar  to  the  Pelee  tower,  but  it  has  not  been 
given  to  the  geological  observer  to  study  their  formation  or  even  to 
identify  their  relations.  Hence  the  significance  of  the  opportunity  for 
new  studies  which  have  latterly  been  presented. 

The  systematic  destruction  of  the  great  core  of  rock  began  in  the 
early  days  of  July,  1903,  and  was  accomplished  with  despatch,  so  that 
by  the  middle  of  that  month  there  was  a  loss  to  the  summit  of  nearly 
400  feet,  and  before  the  close  of  the  second  week  in  August  of  a  further 
100  feet.  During  this  period  of  destruction,  and  for  weeks  afterwards, 
the  activity  of  the  volcano  was  very  pronounced,  and  discharges  of  the 
nuees  denses  (the  name  given  by  the  French  Scientific  Commission  to 
the  descending  black  clouds  which  were  thought  to  be  similar  to  the 
cloud  that  destroyed  Saint-Pierre)  were  frequent,  not  alone  along  the 
valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  but  also  directly  towards  Precheur 
(August  20-21,  27-28,  September  4-6,  etc.)  and  across  the  former 
basin  of  the  Lac  des  Palmistes  (August  20-21,  28-30,  September  11-12, 
13-14,  etc.)  The  greater  number  of  the  discharges  continued,  and 
seemingly  still  continue  (November  2-3,  3-4,  etc.,  and  at  different  times 
in  1904),  along  the  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  taking  the  course  of 
the  hurricane-blast  of  May  8,  1902. 

Coincidently  with  this  destruction  of  the  tower  and  the  return 
of  Pelee  to  a  condition  of  fairly  forceful  activity,  it  was  observed  by 
the  French  Scientific  Commission  that  the  conical  base  upon  which 
the  tower  was  implanted — or,  rather,  through  which  it  passed — was 

28 


THE   TOWEE   OF   PELEE 

itself  undergoing  marked  modification,  being  forced  up  in  the  manner 
of  a  dome.  Effusions  of  viscous  lava  were  adding  to  its  mass,  break- 
ing through  the  confines  here  and  there,  and  solidifying  before  there 
was  an  opportunity  for  a  free  flow.  At  other  times  the  growth  of  the 
"dome"  was  seemingly  merely  an  outward-swelling  or  expansion  (in- 
tumescence), an  ebullition,  resulting  from  steam-pressure  and  the 
accretion  of  lava  rising  from  below.  Whether  thus  formed  by  exogen- 
ous additions  or  as  the  result  of  endogenous  accretions,  the  growth 
of  the  dome,  despite  the  not  insignificant  and  sometimes  very  pro- 
nounced losses  to  its  mass  following  upon  almost  every  larger  explo- 
sion, was  remarkably  rapid.  During  the  ten  days  preceding  August 
17,  as  we  are  informed  by  Prof.  Giraud,  the  dome  had  gained  in  height 
88  feet  (27  metres).*  During  somewhat  less  than  eight  days,  imme- 
diately preceding  August  27-28,  the  gain  in  height  was  164  feet  (50 
metres) ;  and  between  August  26  and  August  30,  98  feet  (30  metres) ;  f 
showing  an  average  daily  increment  of  24^  feet,  closely  correspondent 
with  the  rate  of  growth  of  the  tower  in  its  earlier  period.  The  phe- 
nomena attending  the  growth  of  the  dome  were  those  of  the  general 
eruptions:  the  evolution  of  the  great  volcanic  steam-ash  cloud,  rising 
at  times  to  2000,  3000,  and  4000  metres  above  the  summit  of  the  vol- 
cano ;  loud  detonations,  frequent  discharges  of  dust  and  boulders,  and 
the  more  forcible  explosions  of  the  "black  cloud."  During  the  erup- 
tion of  September  9,  which  lowered  the  dome  15  metres,  the  nuage 
dense,  following  the  course  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  reached  the  sea  in 
five  minutes,  thus  repeating  the  history  of  the  early  period  of  Pelee's 
activity.  In  an  earlier  eruption,  September  3,  when  the  dome  lost  30 
metres,  a  similar  cloud  reached  the  sea  in  seven  minutes.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  at  about  the  middle  of  September  these  clouds,  instead 
of  following  the  usual  downward  course,  now  in  the  main  ascended 
vertically 4  On  September  15-16  such  a  cloud  rose  to  the  extraordinary 
height  of  7000  metres. 

During  much  of  the  period  here  noted  parts  of  the  dome  appeared 
brilliantly  incandescent,  some  of  the  luminous  points  being  fixed  for  a 
number  of  consecutive  days.  On  a  few  nights  when  observations  were 
permitted,  nearly  the  entire  surface  of  the  dome  appeared  as  if  in  a 


*  E.  0.  Hovey,  Science,  Nov.  13,  1903,  p.  633. 
t  Giraud,  L'Opinion,  Martinique, 
t  Giraud,  La  Colonie. 
29 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

glow  of  fire,  and  brilliant  reflections  were  thrown  upon  the  clouds  over- 
head. The  trains  of  boulders  discharged  from  the  dome  with  almost 
every  forcible  eruption  were  also  frequently  incandescently  luminous. 
It  would  seem  that  by  the  first  of  October  the  new  dome  had  actually 
been  constructed  to  a  height  slightly  exceeding  500  feet,  doubtless 
enclosing  within  itself  a  considerable  portion  of  the  lower  moiety  of 
the  destroyed  tower,  if,  indeed,  it  did  not  again  bring  it  to  a  condition 
of  molten  fluidity.  The  most  rapid  development  of  this  remarkable 
structure  appears  to  have  been  on  August  30-31,  when,  as  reported  by 
M.  Giraud,  the  rise  in  a  single  day  was  78  feet  (24  metres).* 

\> 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  connection  with  the  construction  of 
this  remarkable  crateral  dome  that  it  was  (and  is!)  accompanied  by 
new  extrusions  of  solid  "turreted"  matter,  acicular  processes  or  obe- 
lisks appearing  at  different  times  in  two  or  more  parts  of  its  summit. 
Thus,  in  the  early  days  of  September  (1903),  the  observers  of  the 
French  Scientific  Commission  noted  that  the  dome  was  terminated  by 
an  aiguille  rising  from  its  northwest  part,  which  needle  on  September 
7  rose  nearly  10  feet.  On  September  9  this  new  growth  acquired  an 
additional  6  metres,  and  between  September  10  and  12  a  further  8 
metres.  A  second  process  was  at  a  later  day  extruded  through  the 
southeast  portion  of  the  dome,  and  its  fortune,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
earlier  one,  partook  of  the  same  vicissitudes  of  construction  and  de- 
struction which  marked  the  history  of  the  original  great  tower.  On 
October  20  it  lost  5  metres.  There  seems  to  be  at  this  time  no  way  of 
ascertaining  the  precise  relations  existing  between  these  newer  struct- 
ures and  the  basal  portion  of  the  first  formed  and  partially  buried 
tower;  nor  can  it  be  told  if  any  structural  relation  in  fact  exists, 
although  I  strongly  suspect  that  it  does.  But  that  the  newly  appear- 
ing structures  were  in  themselves  of  no  mean  significance  is  proved 
by  the  observation  that  on  November  25  one  of  the  towers  lost  30 
metres  of  its  height  as  the  result  of  the  eruption  of  that  day.f  At  that 
time  the  greater  part  of  the  dome  was  incandescent. 

In  comparing  the  Pelee  dome  (not  the  towers  or  processes)  with 
recalling  or  resembling  structures  elsewhere,  the  geologist  naturally 
turns  to  the  two  or  three  anomalous  types  of  cone  or  summit  that  have 
become  known  for  their  departure  from  the  form  of  the  normal  vol- 
cano. These  are  the  domed  cone,  already  referred  to,  appearing  on 

*  La  Colonie.  t  L'Opinion. 

30 


THE  TOWEK   OF   PELEE 

the  island  of  Giorgios,  in  Santorin,  in  1866 ;  some  of  the  Puys,  as  the 
Puy  Chopine,  of  the  Auvergne  region  of  France;  and  (perhaps  most 
remotely)  the  pyramidated  tops  of  volcanoes  which  Stiibel  has  de- 
scribed from  the  equatorial  Andes.  The  last-named  structures,  how- 
ever, so  far  as  I  am  able  to  comprehend  Stiibel 's  work,  are  seemingly 
only  physiographic  monuments  associated  with-  the  original  making 
of  the  volcanoes,  and  have  nothing  in  common  with  a  later  crateral 
discharge.  They  belong  to  the  type  of  StiibePs  monogenetic  and  not 
polygenetic  volcano. 

Perhaps  a  still  closer  approximation  to  the  Pelee  dome  is  to  be 
found  in  the  dome-structure,  first  noticed  in  1895,  and  more  fully 
developed  iif  the  spring  of  1898,  which  Matteucci  has  described  in 
connection  with  the  more  decent  outbreaks  of  Vesuvius,  and  which 
has  been  so  persistently  denied  by  Mercalli.  Matteucci 's  studies  are 
recorded  in  a  number  of  very  carefully  prepared  papers,*  which  leave 
little  room  to  doubt  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  observations  which 
they  present.  We  learn  from  these  reports  that  the  dome  (or  cupola 
lavica)  gained  in  one  month  (February  14  to  March  15,  1898)  15 
metres  in  altitude,  the  floor  of  the  crater  swelling  up  (intumescing) 
at  the  same  time  to  50  metres.  The  total  height  of  the  dome  is  repre- 
sented to  be  163  metres.  Matteucci  sees  in  this  upheaval  the  combined 
action  of  a  deeply  planted  mechanical  force  and  of  a  superficial  intu- 
mescence, and  he  does  not  fail  to  recognize  the  conditions  which  are 
thought  to  be  associated  with  the  making  of  laccolites.f  There  would 
probably  be  no  impropriety  in  designating  the  Vesuvian  structure 
' '  laccolitic, ' '  even  if  it  represents  no  true  laccolite. 

That  the  Giorgios  dome,  the  type  of  the  cumulo-volcano,  is  essen- 
tially representative  of  the  structure  seen  in  the  Pelee  dome,  as  Lacroix 
has  urged,  seems  undeniable ;  indeed,  the  question  of  differences  would 
seem  to  resolve  itself,  so  far  as  a  direct  comparison  is  made  possible, 
almost  entirely  to  one  of  not  very  important  details.  The  greater  or 


*  Sur  les  Particularites  de  PEruption  du  Vesuve,  Coiuptes-Rendus,  1899,  vol.  129, 
pp.  65,  66;  Sul  Sollevamento  endogeno  di  una  Cupola  lavica  al  Vesuvio,  Rendicont. 
Accad.  Scienze  Fisiche  e  Maternal.  Napoli,  1898,  xxxvii.,  pp.  285  et  seq.;  Se  al  Solleva- 
mento endogeno  di  una  Cupola  lavica  al  Vesuvio  fossa  aver  contribute  la  sol  idicazione 
del  Magma,  Bollet.  Soc.  Geol.  Roma,  1902,  xxi.,  pp.  413  et  seq. 

t "  Si  tratta  di  uno  Sforzo  mecanico  profundo  e  di  una  Intumescenza  superficiale," 
Rendicont.  Nap.,  p.  299. 

31 


THE  TOWEK   OF  PELEE 

lesser  activities  of  the  two  volcanoes  may  account  fully  for  these 
differences. 

Until  the  activity  of  Pelee  will  have  so  far  lessened  as  to  permit 
of  a  closer  study  of  the  dome  its  full  nature  cannot  be  determined, 
perhaps  not  even  to  the  extent  of  allowing  us  to  say  in  how  far,  if  at  all, 
it  is  related  to  the  hollow,  oven-like  forms  which  Dana  and  others  have 
described  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  under  the  name  of  "driblet" 
cones,  and  of  which  Israel  Russell  has  more  recently  given  us  exagger- 
ated types  from  among  the  Jordan  Craters  of  Oregon.  One  of  these 
"ovens"  measures  20  feet  in  height  and  40-50  feet  in  basal  diameter.* 
That  the  intumescing  Pelee  dome  is  at  times  largely  hollow  seems 
sufficiently  established  by  the  markedly  diminished  height  which  fol- 
lows or  accompanies  eruptions  of  only  moderate  intensity.  In  many 
cases  of  such  eruption  there  would  appear  to  be  a  general  collapse. f 

However  closely  we  may  approximate  the  structure  of  the  Pelee 
and  other  domes,  the  problem  of  the  tower  remains  thereby  probably 
unaffected,  and  we  again  search  among  geological  reliquia?  for  paral- 
lels. Nothing  appearing  among  recent  volcanoes,  one  is  almost 
tempted  to  make  comparisons  between  the  Pelee  tower  and  those  giant 
stocks  of  lava  which  have  long  been  recognized  by  geologists  as  "vol- 
canic necks"  and  "laccolitic  cores,"  and  which  are  presumed  to  owe 
their  prominent  forms  in  the  landscape  to  differential  erosion  of  the 
land-surface.  That  some  or  many  of  these  cores  are  only  such  resisting 
blocks  overlooking  an  eroded  land-surface  cannot  be  questioned,  but  it 
is  not  so  certain  that  all  are  of  this  nature,  and  some  may  well  be  of 
the  type  of  structure  which  Pelee  has  presented  in  its  extraordinary 
tower.  One  cannot  resist  the  conclusion,  even  without  the  direct  sup- 
port of  facts,  that  there  must  have  been  other  towers  before  the  one 
of  1902,  and  some  of  these  ought  to  be  preserved  somewhere;  but 
where  1 

Sir  Richard  Strachey  ^  calls  attention  to  ' '  plugs ' '  of  trap,  said 


*  "  Geol.  Southwestern  Idaho  and  Southeastern  Oregon,"  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey, 
1902,  No.  217,  p.  52. 

t  Professor  Russell,  in  the  report  referred  to,  presents  an  exceedingly  suggestive 
illustration  of  a  (pressure)  "dome  in  recent  lava,"  also  among  the  Jordan  lavas  of 
Oregon;  but  it  is  held  that  the  lava  of  this  and  similar  domes  was  antecedently  hori- 
zontal, and  was  forced  up  as  the  result  of  later  pressure.  P.  54,  pi.  xv.,  Fig.  A. 

t  Nature,  October  15,  1903,  p.  574. 

32 


THE  TOWEK   OF   PELEE 

not  to  be  uncommon,  rising  out  of  the  Dekkan  plateau,  and  which 
he  believes  to  be  the  analogues  of  the  Pelee  tower.  A  sketch  of  one 
of  these,  made  as  early  as  1839,  is  in  its  form  certainly  very  suggestive. 
Another  structure  might,  perhaps,  also  be  brought  up  for  comparison 
in  this  connection.  I  refer  to  the  giant  Devil's  Thumb,*  on  the  north- 
west coast  of  Greenland,  marking  the  entrance  to  Melville  Bay.  As  I 
recall  it  from  a  distant  view  of  two  or  three  miles,  after  a  lapse  of 
twelve  years,  and  as  it  appears  in  sketch  on  the  border  of  the  Admi- 
ralty Charts,  it  has  almost  exactly  the  outline  of  the  Pelee  tower,  rising 
up  in  supreme  and  almost  isolated  majesty  to  a  height  of  2350  feet. 
Unfortunately,  however,  we  are  not  yet  in  a  position  to  state  if  this 
prominent  feature  in  the  landscape  is  volcanic,  or  even  if  one  of  the 
vast  basaltic  areas  of  Greenland  absolutely  surrounds  its  base.  The 
relief  and  conditions  of  the  land  would  seem  to  argue  against  any 
form  of  erosional  construction. 

NATUEE    OF    THE    TOWEE. 

There  remains  little  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  tower  of  Pelee  was 
merely  the  ancient  core  of  the  volcano  that  had  been  forced  from  the 
position  of  rest  in  which  solidification  had  left  it.  The  generally  ac- 
cepted view  regarding  its  construction  is  that  which  was  advanced  by 
Lacroix,  and  which  holds  that  the  giant  block  was  an  active  acidic  (ande- 
sitic)  lava  whose  viscosity  was  such  as  to  permit  of  solidification  while 
still  within  the  chimney  of  the  volcano,  and  whose  movement  posterior  to 
extrusion  was,  by  reason  of  this  solidificaton,  necessarily  made  a  ver- 
tical one.  There  could  be  no  free  flow.  This  explanation  appeals  in 
its  simplicity,  and  it  is  one  to  which  I  confess  myself  having  been  at 
first  committed.  There  are  objections  to  it,  however.  The  form  of 
the  tower,  and  the  fact  that  it  rose  through  a  supporting  dome  or  cone, 
a  portion  of  which  was  constructed  of  actually  fluid  or  semi-fluid  lava, 
are  hardly  consonant  with  this  mode  of  construction.  Bather  under 
these  conditions  would  one  look  for  a  simple  cumulus  or  dome,  and 
for  that  alone.  A  general  and  united  solidification  within  the  chimney 
of  the  volcano  over  a  surface  having  a  diameter  of  350-500  feet  or 
more,  and  accomplished  so  rapidly  as  to  prevent  all  overflow,  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  of.  The  slow  cooling  of  lavas  is  in  itself  a  further 
serious  objection,  for  it  hardly  permits  us,  even  under  the  special 


*  Not  the  more  southerly  one  bearing  the  same  name. 
33 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

conditions  of  volcanic  stress  here  presented,  to  postulate  the  solidifica- 
tion to  the  core  of  so  vast  a  rock-mass  in  the  short  period  of  its  exist- 
ence. Geologists  have  long  taught  the  lesson  of  the  many  years  in 
which  rigidly  cooled  lava-streams  have  maintained  their  " fires" 
within;  and  yet  here  the  extinguishment  of  these  fires  is  claimed  for 
the  period  of  a  few  weeks,  or  even  days.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
the  tower  was  virtually  solid  to  the  core,  and  equally  little  need  one 
doubt  that  its  temperature  was  not  such  as  to  maintain  a  fluidal  or 
semi-fluidal  interior.  Had  the  tower  not  been  solid,  or  had  it  contained 
much  incandescent  fluidal  matter,  the  numerous  breakages,  whether  on 
the  flanks  or  across  the  summit,  which  marked  the  tower's  history, 
would  have  revealed  these  conditions  many  times. 

Again,  the  general  aspect  of  the  tower-rock  was  not  such  as  to 
suggest  recently  cooled  and  solidified  lava.  I  have  elsewhere  referred 
to  its  slaggy  appearance  and  to  its  recalling  "burnt-out"  cinder 
masses,  the  whole  looking  much  like  a  furnace-product  and  wholly 
unlike  recently  cooled  lava.  This  was  remarked  of  what  might  reason- 
ably be  assumed  to  have  been  the  same  structure  as  early  as  June  1, 
1902,  when  the  coming  of  a  tower  was  not  even  suspected.  With  the 
solidification  of  an  erupting  fresh  lava,  while  the  outer  coat  would 
almost  certainly  be  measurably  scoriaceous,  the  great  inner  mass, 
unless  parting  with  its  gases  in  a  manner  that  has  not  heretofore  been 
observed  or  known  in  volcanoes,*  could  hardly  be  other  than  rigid 
rock,  and  one  much  more  capable  of  resisting  repeated  destruction 
than  was  the  rock  of  Pelee's  tower.  Nor,  indeed,  from  this  type  of 
rock  would  we  have  obtained  that  clinkery  sound  which  accompanied 
the  numerous  disruptions  and  falls  of  material  from  the  tower. 

Other  objections  to  the  commonly  received  view  regarding  the 
construction  of  Pelee's  remarkable  tower  might  be  urged,  but  they 
would  add  little  to  a  discussion  whose  premises  are  so  difficult  to  reach 
as  they  are  in  this  one. 

In  assuming  the  tower  to  have  been  an  ancient  neck-core  which 
under  enormous  pressure  had  been  lifted  from  its  moorings,  we  at 
least  require  no  condition  that  is  not  generally  provided  for  by  vol- 
canoes. There  can  be  no  objection  to  postulating  the  existence  of  such 
a  core  here,  as  in  other  volcanoes;  and  if  existing,  there  would  seem 

*  See  a  paper  by  G.  K.  Gilbert  on  a  (thought)  possible  construction  of  the  Pelee 
tower,  in  Science,  June,  1904. 

34 


THE   TOWEE   OF   PELEE 

to  be  no  reason  why,  under  the  gigantic  force  of  Pelee 's  activity,  it 
should  not  have  been  dislodged  and  pushed  bodily  outward.  The  reac- 
tion upon  this  contained  mass  of  accumulating  heat,  and  the  infusion 
into  it  of  steam  and  flows  of  new  lava,  would  help  to  explain  the  "burnt- 
out"  and  scraggy  look  which  from  the  first  had  been  a  characteristic 
of  the  tower-rock.*  This  view  of  the  nature  and  extrusion  of  the  giant 
monolith  would  at  the  same  time  satisfactorily  explain  its  isostatic 
condition  and  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  formulating  new  laws  or 
conditions  governing  the  rapid  cooling  of  lavas.  Indeed,  in  assuming 
the  presence  of  this  giant  core  in  the  throat  of  the  volcano,  blocking  it 
and  preventing  the  free  escape  of  the  impounded  gases,  it  becomes 
much  easier  to  understand  the  violence  of  the  explosions  which  have 
marked  so  many  of  the  Pelee  eruptions  and  the  disruptions  that  so 
repeatedly  wrecked  (more  particularly)  the  southwestern  base  of  the 
tower, — the  side  directed  to  Saint-Pierre  or  the  valley  of  the  Riviere 
Blanche. 

To  the  objection  that  might  be  made  that  no  similar  extrusions 
have  characterized  the  outbreaks  of  other  volcanoes,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  furnish  the  answer  that  they  have  not  provided  a  tower  of  any  kind 
either.  The  fact  is  that  violent  volcanic  eruptions  have  been  only 
sparingly  studied,  and  few  observers  have  been  sufficiently  fortunate 
to  be  on  the  field  of  activity  at  times  when  the  earlier  phenomena  of 
an  eruption  could  be  profitably  noted.  There  are,  doubtless,  many 
facts  connected  with  the  physics  of  the  opening  of  a  volcanic  mountain 
which  have  heretofore  escaped  notice,  and  some  of  these  may  have 
been  directly  allied  to  the  greater  facts  which  Pelee  itself  has  pre- 
sented. The  extrusion  or  lifting  of  giant  solid  masses  by  volcanoes 
is  not,  however,  an  absolutely  unknown  fact.  Abich,  as  far  back  as 
1882, f  described  the  cliffs  of  limestone  and  marble  which  form  an 
essential  part  of  the  centre  of  the  crater  of  the  ancient  volcano  of 
Palandokan,  and  which  he  unhesitatingly  assumed  to  have  been  lifted 
to  their  positions  as  the  result  of  the  volcano's  elevatory  force.  A 
somewhat  similar  or  identical  relation  is  presented  by  the  Puy  Cho- 
pine,  in  the  Auvergne,  where,  as  we  are  informed  by  Scrope  and  others, 


*  It  is  but  proper  to  add  that  several  geologists  have  suggested,  in  conversation 
with  the  author,  the  broad  possibility  of  the  Pelee  tower  having  had  this  origin  or  pointed 
out  the  difficulties  that  lay  in  the  way  of  accepting  the  more  general  view. 

t  Geologische  Forschungen  in  den  Kaukasischen  Landern,"  ii.,  pp.  67-78. 

35 


THE  TOWEE   OF  PELEE 

great  blocks  of  elevated  granite,  sandwiched  between  trachyte,  and 
constituting  a  portion  of  the  basal  rock  of  the  volcano,  now  form  part 
of  the  upper  moiety  of  the  dome  and  point  unequivocally  to  elevation 
at  a  time  or  times  of  eruption.  Other  examples  of  this  kind  in  the  past 
histories  of  volcanoes  could  be  cited,  and,  doubtless,  many  more  than 
are  at  present  known  will  be  found  when  the  craters  of  volcanoes, 
active  and  non-active,  will  have  been  more  accurately  investigated  than 
has  been  the  case  until  now. 

The  question  of  depth  to  which  the  Pelee  tower  descended  within 
the  throat  of  the  volcano,  assuming  it  to  have  been  an  ancient  core, 
cannot  be  profitably  discussed.  It  can  merely  be  stated  on  this  hypoth- 
esis that  the  accretions  to  height  which  followed  every  summit  dis- 
ruption and  abasement  were  merely  the  expression  of  a  further  portion 
of  the  core  thrust  out.* 

Did  one  need  any  direct  evidence  to  support  the  view  that  I  have 
set  forth  regarding  the  structure  of  the  Pelee  tower,  it  could  easily  be 
found,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  condition  of  parallel  activity  which  the 
volcano  has  all  along  maintained  at  the  summit, — namely,  the  con- 
struction of  a  fluidal  dome  (cone)  and  the  simultaneous  erection  of  a 
rigid  spine  or  tower.  This  divergent  condition  is  hardly  explicable 
on  the  theory  of  the  almost  instantaneous  cooling  of  the  outwelling 
lava,  whereas  it  id  entirely  consonant  (and  only  what  one  should 
expect  to  find)  with  the  notion  of  an  ancient  upthrow.  Even  as  late 
as  the  beginning  of  the  present  year  (January  3,  1904),  what  is  de- 


*  For  individual  views  on  the  structure  and  nature  of  the  Pelee  tower  see :  Israel 
C.  Russell,  "The  Pelee  Obelisk,"  Science,  Dec.  18,  1903;  Jaggar,  "The  Initial  Stages 
of  the  Spine  on  Pelee,"  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  Jan.,  1904;  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  Amer. 
Geologist,  1904.  Also,  Branner,  on  the  "  Peak  of  Fernando  do  Noronha,"  Amer.  Journ. 
Science,  Dec.,  1903.  In  a  paper  on  the  "  Criteria  Relating  to  Massive  Solid  Volcanic 
Eruptions"  (Amer.  Journ.  Science,  April,  1904),  Prof.  Russell  cites  a  number  of 
instances  from  among  the  American  volcanic  fields — Panum  Crater,  in  the  Mono  Lake 
region,  California;  the  tower-rock  of  the  Bogoslov  eruption  of  1883;  Pauline  Lake 
Crater,  Oregon — where  structures  thought  to  be  analogous  to  the  Pelee  tower  have  been 
developed.  These  are  all  explained  on  the  hypothesis  of  a  rapidly  solidifying  viscous 
lava,  thrust  out  in  the  manner  that  has  generally  been  assumed  for  the  Martinique 
tower;  but  to  whatever  extent  these  may  share  the  Pelee  type  of  structure,  it  seems 
to  me  that  they  receive  an  at  least  as  acceptable  interpretation  in  assuming  that  they 
are  merely  extruded  ancient  cores  (necks).  One  may  reasonably  hold  that  such  ex- 
truded cores  must  exist  somewhere,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  careful  search  will  reveal 
many  among  structures  which  have  hitherto  received  wholly  erroneous  interpretations. 

36 


scribed  as  being  the  remains  of  the  ancient  needle  was  reported  by 
the  French  Commission  to  be  rapidly  rising,  while  the  dome  remained 
stationary  or  was  being  lowered  through  disruptions  and  cavings; 
and  on  November  11,  1903,  a  needle  15  metres  in  height,  which  stood 
on  the  western  side  of  the  dome,  was  reported  to  have  disappeared. 
In  the  illustration  that  appears  on  Plate  Vila,  from  a  photograph 
taken  in  the  month  of  March  of  the  present  year  (1904),  the  jagged 
stock  of  a  new  obelisk  or  tower,  unless  it  be  the  basal  portion  of  the 
original  tower  that  was  destroyed,  is  seen  overtopping  the  true  sum- 
mit of  the  mountain,  and  rising  from  its  central  supporting  dome. 


IV 

FURTHER   OBSERVATIONS   ON    THE   PHENOMENA   OF   PELEE 

THE  chief  features  of  the  Pelee  eruptions  and  their  attending  phe- 
nomena are  discussed  in  detail  in  my  "Mont  Pelee  and  the  Tragedy 
of  Martinique,"  and  such  new  observations  as  have  been  made  only 
tend  to  emphasize  the  extraordinary  nature  of  these  eruptions.  Pelee, 
indeed,  stands  out  unique  among  all  the  volcanoes  of  the  globe,  and 
the  object  lesson  taught  by  it  is  the  most  impressive  and  perhaps  most 
important  that  appears  in  the  records  of  vulcanology.  The  principal 
features  and  effects  of  its  activity  may  be  paragraphically  summarized 
as  follows : 

A.  A  disturbance  in  the  electro-magnetic  field  of  our  planet  which 
in  magnitude  surpassed  all  hitherto   recorded  disturbances   of  this 
nature,  the  almost  immediate  and  consentaneous  effects  being  regis- 
tered at  the  widely  removed  magnetic  observatories  of  Cheltenham 
(in  Maryland),  Baldwin  (Kansas),  Toronto,  Stoneyhurst,  Val  Joyeux 
(France),   Paris,    Potsdam,    Pola,    Athens,    Honolulu,    Zi-ka-Wei,    in 
China,  and  elsewhere,  the  traverse  of  the  disturbance  being  in  all  cases 
about  two  minutes  of  time.    No  previous  volcanic  eruption,  not  even 
the  paroxysmal  destruction  of  Krakatao  in  1883,  is  known  to  have  pro- 
duced any  magnetic  disturbance  other  than  of  a  local  character. 

B.  The  production  of  electric  or  pyro-electric  illuminations  in  the 
volcanic  cloud  seemingly  far  surpassing  those  that  had  ever  before  been 
noted,  and  presenting  features  that  had  not  hitherto  been  recorded. 

C.  The  propagation  of  sound-waves  to  distances  of  800  (and  prob- 
ably 1000  or  more)  miles,  the  explosion  of  May  8  having  been  heard 
with  terrific  intensity  at  Maracaibo,  the  sound,  as  likewise  that  accom- 
panying the  eruption  of  August  30,  seeming  to  come  from  above. 

D.  The  transmission  of  a  shock-wave,  or  earth  tremor,  as  would 
appear  from  the   single  observation  made   at  Zi-ka-Wei,   in   China, 
passing  completely  through  the  earth, — a  condition  that  had  only  once 
before  been  noted  (in  connection  with  the  Krakatao  eruption). 

E.  The  formation  of  a  remarkable  series  of  "after-glows,"  or 
brilliant  red  skies,  which  doubtless  made  the  passage  over  the  entire 
earth,  and  were  observed  off  the  Venezuelan  coast,  at  Los  Angeles 

38 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

(California),  Honolulu,  Bombay,  Funchal  (Madeira),  in  most  parts 
of  Europe,  from  Italy  to  England,  and  along  nearly  the  entire  Atlantic 
border  and  the  central  portion  of  the  United  States.  These  skies,  with 
the  attendant  Bishop's  ring,  were  less  brilliant  than  those  which  fol- 
lowed the  Krakatao  eruption,  occupied  a  position  much  nearer  to  the 
earth's  surface,  and  travelled  with  somewhat  less  than  half  the  velocity. 

F.  The  emission  of  prodigious  quantities  of  steam  and  ash,  the 
steam-column  passing  at  times  vertically  through  the  zones  of  both 
the  trade  and  anti-trade  winds,  and  to  heights  above  the  summit  of 
the  volcano  estimated  to  be  from  four  to  six  miles.    The  furthest  dis- 
tance at  which  the  falling  ash  was  noted  on  the  surface  of  the  sea 
appears  to  have  been  about  700  (900?)  miles. 

G.  The  issuance  of  an  explosive  tornadic  blast,  of  a  nature  per- 
haps not  yet  entirely  understood,  whose  death-dealing  and  destroying 
effects  have  no  other  event  in  the  earth's  history  to  compare  with  it. 
The  event  of  August  30  was  a  repetition  of  that  of  May  8. 

H.  The  extrusion  from  the  crater-summit  of  the  volcano  of  a  giant 
core  of  solid  lava,  a  veritable  tower  or  obelisk,  which  at  its  most  lofty 
period  (May  31,  1903)  rose  to  about  1020  feet,  with  a  thickness  at  the 
base  of  350-500  feet  (shortest  and  longest  diameter). 

7.  The  eruptions  of  Pelee  took  place  in  times  of  atmospheric  sta- 
bility, were  unaccompanied  by  earthquake  movements,  and  had  no 
relation  to  distinctive  phases  either  of  the  moon  or  of  the  sun. 

J.  The  ejected  products,  exclusive  of  the  tower,  were  of  a  f rag- 
mental,*  aqueous,  and  gaseous  nature,  there  having  been  no  true  lava- 
flows  (at  least,  not  beyond  the  crater-limits). 

*  The  fragrnental  products  of  the  Pelee  eruptions  are  essentially  a  highly  acidic 
hypersthene-andesite,  whose  general  composition,  as  determined  by  the  analyses  of  Hilde- 
brand,  Mirville,  Pollard,  and  others,  may  be  stated  to  be  SiO.,,  53-62  per  cent.;  Al,0, 

(and  Fe20,)»  20~30  Per  cent-5  Ca°>  6~10  Per  cent-5  MS°>  2~4  Per  cent>  +  NAKA  and 
H20.  This  does  not  differ  essentially  in  composition  from  the  audesitic  rocks  which 
form  the  old  stock  of  the  volcano,  and  which  are  so  largely  distributed  over  the  island 
of  Martinique.  A  true  cyclic  succession  of  the  volcanic  rocks,  following  the  Richthofen 
view,  would  seem  not  to  have  been  here  realized,  although  it  is  true  that  a  large  part  of 
the  ejected  material  was  in  all  likelihood  from  the  old  stock  of  the  volcano.  Giraud, 
from  a  determination  of  a  few  fossil  remains  found  in  the  tuffs  of  Trinite  and  Marin 
(Turritella  tornata,  also  found  in  the  Miocene  of  Panama — Pecten  (Amussium)  sub- 
pleuronectes,  and  Aturia  aturi)  and  on  other  grounds,  assumes  the  earlier  volcanic  out- 
flows to  have  begun  in  the  Oligocene,  and  to  have  been  carried  through  the  Miocene 
period  (Bull.  Soc.  Geol.  de  France,  Nov.  17, 1902,  p.  395;  ibid.,  Feb.  16,  1903,  p.  130). 

39 


THE   TOWBE   OF   PELEE 

K.  No  marked  alteration  in  the  coast-line  or  in  the  height  of  the 
land  has  thus  far  been  noted  in  the  region  of  the  disturbance.  There 
is,  on  the  other  hand,  strong  reason  to  believe  that  violent  disturbances 
took  place  along  the  oceanic  floor  near  by,  even  if  not  necessarily  dis- 
turbing in  marked  degree  the  position  of  that  floor. 

L.  Each  violent  eruption  was  accompanied  by  a  vertical  displace- 
ment, of  short  duration  and  with  infrequent  oscillations,  of  the  sea- 
level,  the  surface  rising  on  both  the  east  and  the  west  side  of  the  island 
about  three  feet. 

M.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  a  chorologic  relationship  existing 
between  the  activities  of  Pelee  and  the  Soufriere  of  St.  Vincent. 

The  following  additional  notes  and  observations,  bearing  upon 
the  different  topics  indicated  in  the  several  paragraphs,  are  given 
towards  further  completing  the  scientific  history  of  Martinique's  re- 
markable volcano. 

(a)  The  magnetic  observations  made  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  and  collected  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  of  the  United 
States,  show  that  the  remarkable  disturbances  in  the  magnetic  field 
to  which  reference  has  been  made  had  a  common  initial  time  over  the 
entire  globe, — namely,  7h.  54.1m.  A.M.,  Saint-Pierre  local  mean  time. 
The  data  were  obtained  from  observations  made  at  twenty-six  obser- 
vatories encircling  the  globe.* 

There  is  hardly  room  to  doubt  that  the  transmission  of  the  dis- 
turbance was  effected  through  the  heart  of  the  earth,  and  did  not 
follow  a  surface  course.  The  passage  of  an  electro-magnetic  or  electric 
current  through  the  earth  opens  out  an  interesting  inquiry  as  to  pos- 
sible effects  that  may  have  been  produced  by  it.  Some  of  these  effects 
could,  perhaps,  be  held  to  be  productive  of  a  certain  form  of  volcanic 
energy  in  distant  regions,  or  at  least  to  be  an  inciting  force. 

(b)  In  my  account  of  the  extraordinary  pyro-electric  display  seen 
in  the  volcanic  cloud  of  the  evening  of  August  30,  the  night  of  the 
destruction  of  Morne  Rouge  and  other  settlements,  I  referred  to  the 
peculiar  figures  which,  with  extreme  electric  brilliancy,  moved  and 

*  L.  A.  Bauer,  "  Magnetic  Disturbances  during  the  Eruption  of  Mont  Pelee  on 
May  8,  1902."  Paper  read  before  the  International  Geographic  Congress,  Washington, 
September,  1904.  Dr.  Baur  also  calls  attention  to  the  interesting  fact  that  a  similar 
magnetic  disturbance  was  noted  on  April  17-19  (also  on  April  10),  "covering  the 
period  of  the  Guatemalan  earthquake"  (Quezaltenango) ;  this  is,  again,  precisely  the 
period  when  Pelee  was  first  significantly  active. 

40 


THE   TOWEE   OF  PELEE 

flashed  directly  overhead, — straight  and  serpentine  lines,  single  and 
in  parallel  series,  tailed  and  tailless  circles,  rocket-stars,  etc.  It  seems 
that  most  of  these  figures  had  nowhere  been  noted  before  the  May 
eruption,  although  something  analogous  had  been  observed  in  New 
Zealand  at  the  time  of  the  Tarawera  eruption  of  1886.  A  note  com- 
municated by  Mr.  Powell,  Curator  of  the  St.  Vincent  Botanic  Gardens,* 
on  the  great  eruption  of  the  Soufriere  of  September  3,  1902,  refers  to 
serpent  electric  flashes  in  the  sky  at  that  time.  Doubtless,  these  were 
of  identical  nature  with  those  observed  in  the  Pelee  cloud,  although  no 
reference  is  made  to  the  lines  occurring  in  parallel  associations.  I 
find,  however,  as  illustrated  in  La  Nature  for  January  30,  1904,  and 
described  by  Em.  Touches  (La  Forme  et  la  Structure  de  V Eclair]  in 
a  review  of  Prinz's  recent  work,  that  a  form  of  undulating  quintuple 
lightning  was  observed  in  Paris  on  July  29,  1900. 

(c)  It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  while  the  noise  of  the  Pelee  erup- 
tions of  May  8  and  August  30,  as  noted  at  Maracaibo,  800  miles  distant, 
at  Cariipano,  on  the  Venezuelan  coast,  and  at  Port  of  Spain,  on  the 
island  of  Trinidad,  appear  to  have  come  from  above,  or,  as  stated  by 
Consul  Plummacher,  to  have  originated  in  the  clouds,  such  detonations 
have  very  generally  been  described  as  being  subterranean,  the  propa- 
gation of  the  sound-waves  being  readily  facilitated  by  the  solid  rock- 
masses.  Thus,  Humboldt,  referring  to  the  eruption  of  Cotopaxi  in 
1744,f  states  that  the  propagated  noise,  which  was  heard  at  a  distance 
of  at  least  436  miles,  was  surely  subterranean;  and  Scherzer,  who 
received  testimony  of  witnesses  of  the  event,  ^  states  that  at  the  time 
of  the  great  eruption  of  Coseguina  the  detonations,  which  were  carried 
hundreds  of  miles,  appeared  subterranean.  Probably  no  exact  reason 
can  be  assigned  for  these  differences  in  sound-carriage;  some  of  the 
anomalies  of  this  transmission  have  already  been  pointed  out  in  my 
report. 

(e)  It  has  before  been  said  that  the  red  skies  or  "after-glows" 
which  followed  the  Antillean  eruptions  made,  with  little  doubt,  a  full 
traverse  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  the  numerous  and  distant  points 
at  which  these  magnificent  phenomena  were  observed  giving  sufficient 
evidence  in  support  of  this  assumption.  The  fact  that  the  Soufriere 

*  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  London,  Feb.  10,  1903. 
t  Cosmos,  Bohn  edition,  i.,  p.  203. 
t  Wanderungen,  1857,  pp.  479  et  seq. 
41 


THE  TOWER   OF   PELEE 

and  the  volcano  of  Santa  Maria,  in  Guatemala,  were  also  in  eruption 
during  the  period  of  Pelee's  activity,  and  throwing  out  vast  quan- 
tities of  ash,  has  naturally  made  it  impossible  to  correlate  the  after- 
glows, especially  those  of  the  later  dates,  with  the  individual  erup- 
tions. I  have  myself  noted,  around  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  the 
most  brilliant  sky-glows,  unquestionably  of  the  volcanic  type,  at  recur- 
rent periods  in  December,  1902,  and  in  late  January,  1903.  Mr.  Back- 
house *  notes  their  occurrence  in  association  with  a  solar  corona 
(Bishop's  ring)  at  Sunderland,  England,  at  the  end  of  June,  on  Octo- 
ber 30,  November  1  (at  its  full  magnificence),  17  and  18;  at  Torquay, 
on  November  6  and  10;  and  at  Dundee,  on  December  1.  M.  Enginitis, 
the  Director  of  the  Athens  Observatory,  notes  the  after-glows  of  Octo- 
ber 25  and  later,  beginning  a  few  minutes  after  sunset,  and  rising,  like 
the  glow  from  a  conflagration,  to  a  height  of  45  degrees.  A  similar 
glow  is  stated  to  have  followed  the  eruptions  of  Etna  in  1831.  f  More 
recently  Professor  Forel  has  described:}:  the  Bishop's  ring  carefully 
studied  by  him  at  Morges,  on  Lake  Geneva,  the  identity  of  which  with 
the  ring  observed  by  Bishop  in  Honolulu,  in  1883,  is  stated  to  be  abso- 
lute. The  period  of  visibility  of  the  new  ring  appeared  to  have  ex- 
tended from  August,  1902,  to  December,  1903,  §  and  seemingly  was  a 
continuous  one  from  favorable  points  of  observation.  Forel  noted  it 
(practically)  every  day  when  he  was  placed  in  positions  removed 
beyond  the  dust-zone  of  the  lowland  plains, — from  the  Eochers  de 
Naye,  in  Valais,  from  Pilatus,  St.  Gotthard,  the  middle  and  upper 
slopes  of  Mont  Blanc  (where  it  was  also  observed  [Montanvers]  by 
Laurence  Eotch  on  August  20,  1902).  ||  Other  points  of  observation 
recorded  are:  Arnsberg  (November  19,  1902,  March  21-22,  1903,  by 
Dr.  Busch),  Heidelberg  (January,  1903,  by  Prof.  Max  Wolf),  Zurich 
(January,  March  27-28,  July  7,  8,  9,  and  later  of  the  same  month,  1903, 
by  Dr.  Maurer),  St.  Petersburg  (October  5,  November  9,  1902,  January 
21,  February  10,  18,  23,  March  17,  April  5,  May  29,  July  26,  1903,  by 
Rykatcheff),  Lucerne  (July  26,  1903,  by  Dr.  Arnold),  Frankenfeld, 
Clarens,  Hoh-Konigsburg,  in  Alsace,  etc.  Forel  concludes  that  the 

*  Nature,  Dec.  25,  1902,  p.  174. 

t  Communication  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Paris,  Revue  Scient,  Dec.  20,  1902, 
p.  787. 

t  Archives  des  Sciences  physiques  et  naturelles,  Oct.  15,  1903 ;  Feb, 15,  1904. 
§  Helm  Clayton,  in  Nature,  Jan.  21,  1904. 
||  Nature,  Oct.  29,  1903. 

42 


virtual  continuity  in  appearance  of  the  Bishop's  ring  is,  at  least,  pre- 
sumptive proof  that  the  ash-belt  in  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmos- 
phere was  a  continuous  one.  This  is  thought  not  to  have  been  the  case 
with  the  lower  belt  or  zone  of  ashes  which  originated  the  crepuscular 
glows,  for  these  appeared  only  at  irregular  intervals,  differing  in  this 
respect  from  the  glows  following  the  Krakatao  eruption.* 

A  most  interesting  observation  has  latterly  been  made  touching 
the  distribution  and  retention  of  the  volcanic  particles  in  the  atmos- 
phere,— namely,  that  they  have  served  as  a  cushion  or  screen  to  reduce 
the  intensity  of  solar  radiation.  According  to  Henri  Dufour,f  such  a 
diminution  of  radiant  measure  was  noted,  among  other  places,  at 
Clarens,  Lausanne,  Heidelberg,  Warsaw,  Washington;  etc.,  beginning 
in  December,  1902,  and  continuing  but  steadily  diminishing  to  March, 
1903.  This  opacity  of  the  atmosphere,  which  is  attributed  to  the  Antil- 
lean  outpourings,  and  may  be  due  directly  to  easier  condensation  of 
vapor  under  the  influence  of  ash-nuclei,  is  evidenced :  1,  by  diminution 
in  the  intensity  of  the  solar  radiation;  2,  diminution  of  the  optical 
transparency  of  the  atmosphere;  3,  diminution  in  the  sky's  polariza- 
tion; and  4,  displacement  of  the  neutral  point  of  Arago  and  Babinet. 
These  several  conditions  had  been  clearly  noted  in  the  atmospheric 
disturbances  following  the  eruption  of  Krakatao.  Ladislas  Grorczyn- 
ski,  who  has  been  following  up  Dufour's  observations  and  is  inclined 
to  accept  Dufour's  interpretation  of  the  phenomena,  notes  that  the 
diminution  was  observed  in  Warsaw,  Poland,  as  early  as  May,  1902, 
and  that  from  that  time  it  increased  progressively  until  the  spring 
of  1903 ;  it  had  practically  disappeared  before  the  close  of  that  year.:}: 

(g)  There  is  little  to  add  to  the  views  that  I  have  already  ex- 
pressed with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  tornadic  blasts  which  brought 
about  the  appalling  catastrophes  of  May  8  and  August  30.  Most 
observers  appear  now  to  be  pretty  well  agreed  that  the  main  engine 
of  destruction  was  steam  in  a  superheated  condition  or  in  a  condition 
of  high  tension  and  extreme  temperature.  In  how  far  the  work  of 
death  may  have  been  assisted  by  the  association  with  this  tornadic 


*  Archives  des  Sci.  P.  et  N.,  Feb.  15,  1903. 

t  Comptes-Rendus,  cxxxvi.  pp.  713-715 ;    Arch,  des  Sci.  Phys.  et  Nat.,  Oct.  15, 
1903,  pp.  459,  460. 

t  Sur  la  Diminution   de   1'Intensite   du   Rayonnement   solaire   en   1902   et   1903, 
Comptes-Rendus,  Feb.  1,  1904,  cxxxvi.  p.  255. 

43 


steam  of  poisonous,  not  necessarily  inflamed,  gases,  perhaps  will  never 
be  known.  In  my  first  report  *  I  was  inclined  to  attach  first  impor- 
tance to  the  effects  of  one  of  the  heavier  carbon  gases,  it  having 
appeared  to  me  at  that  time  that  the  steam  played  the  less  important 
part  so  far  as  the  extinction  of  human  life  was  concerned.  After  my 
later  visit  to  the  island,  when  I  was  made  a  close  observer  of,  if  not 
an  absolute  participant  in,  the  second  death-dealing  eruption,  and  had 
the  opportunity  of  almost  immediately  studying  the  effects  of  this 
eruption,  I  found  it  necessary  to  modify  my  views  with  regard  to  the 
destroying  agent,  and  to  attribute  the  major  work  of  destruction  to 
explosive  steam.  The  participation  in  this  work  of  inflamed  gases  was 
nowhere  apparent ;  indeed,  the  evidence  obtained  from  the  character  of 
the  vegetation,  from  unburnt  wood-work,  from  the  unaffected  clothing, 
and  from  the  experiences  and  sensations  of  the  wounded  and  dying  who 
went  through  the  storm,  showed  that  there  could  have  been  no  such 
participation.  At  the  same  time,  the  absolute  annihilation  wrought 
has  always  appeared  to  me  a  puzzling  feature  in  the  work  of  steam 
alone,  and  while  it  may  be  admitted  that  the  overthrow  of  Saint-Pierre 
was  due  virtually  to  this  one  cause,  or  to  the  tornadic  work  which  it 
impelled,  it  seems  not  unlikely  that  the  work  of  human  destruction 
was  bound  in  with  accessory  conditions,  some  of  which  may  never  be 
known  to  us.  With  regard  to  the  possible  assistance  of  asphyxiating 
gases,  and  as  bearing  upon  my  first-expressed  view,  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  M.  Moissan,  who  has  made  a  close  study  of  the  fumarole 
gases  of  Pelee,  finds  the  quantity  of  carbon  oxyd  so  large  as  to  war- 
rant the  assumption  that  it  must  have  been  present  in  sufficient 
measure  in  the  exploding  cloud  of  the  main  eruption  to  have  caused, 
through  toxic  inhalation,  the  deaths  of  at  least  a  large  portion  of  the 
populace.  Other  gases  found  were  hydrogen,  methane,  and  argon, 
the  last  two  also  found  among  the  gases  of  the  waters  of  Luchon  (ad- 
dressed to  the  Academic  des  Sciences  of  Paris,  December  15,  1902; 
Revue  Scientifique,  January  8,  1903).* 

*  Published  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  August,  1902. 

t  Moissan  has  since  found  the  carbon  oxyd  gas  in  large  proportion  among  the 
fumarole  products  of  the  Soufri&re  of  Guadeloupe.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Boussingault,  from  observations  made  upon  the  volcanoes  Tolima,  Quindiu,  Purace, 
Pasto,  Tuqueres,  and  Cumbal,  of  the  Equatorial  Andes,  found  that  their  chief  gaseous 
emanations  were  water-vapor  and  carbonic  acid,  the  sulphurous  acid  present  being 
considered  accidental;  and  it  is  remarked  that  even  where  the  odor  of  sulphur  is 

44 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

I  have  always  felt  that  electric  discharges  were  also  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  destruction  of  life;  indeed,  the  case  could  hardly 
have  been  otherwise,  for,  as  we  are  informed  by  competent  witnesses, 
the  death-dealing  cloud  was  charged  with  electricity,  short  flashes  pass- 
ing at  rapid  intervals  from  point  to  point.  This  same  feature  had 
also  been  observed  in  the  descending  cloud  of  June  6,  and  Flett  and 
Anderson  refer  to  it  in  their  description  of  the  cloud  of  July  9,  1902. 
During  my  latest  visit  to  Martinique  I  was  informed,  by  one  who  was 
saved  from  the  destruction  of  Ajoupa-Bouillon  (although  losing  his 
family  in  that  terrible  disaster  of  August  30),  that  the  descending 
cloud  that  wrought  the  havoc  was  flashing  with  electric  lines  and 
sparks,  resembling  artificial  fireworks. 

I  have  elsewhere  expressed  my  view  that  the  destruction  of  Pompeii 
was  in  all  probability  caused  by  a  volcanic  discharge  similar  to  that 
which  brought  about  the  annihilation  of  Saint-Pierre,  and  that  the 
phenomena  of  the  Vesuvian  eruption  of  the  year  79  and  of  Pelee  were 
largely  similar.  It  seems  not  unlikely  that  there  may  have  been  erup- 
tions from  other  volcanoes,  the  conditions  of  which  have  not  been 
properly  investigated,  which  had  much  in  common  with  what  is  assumed 
to  be  the  distinctive  features  of  the  Pelee  explosion.  Thus,  it  is  noted 
by  M.  Fouque,  in  his  work  on  Santorin,  that  at  the  time  of  the  eruption 
of  the  year  1650  the  dead  bodies  of  a  number  of  sailors  were  found  on 
a  drifting  vessel  several  miles  from  the  seat  of  the  eruption,  and  exhib- 
iting abdominal  and  head  inflation,  protruding  tongues,  and  inflamed 
eyes.  These  features  of  corporeal  distortion  were  a  marked  character- 
istic of  the  killed  in  both  the  Pelee  eruptions,  and  have  been  attributed 
to  special  conditions  surrounding  the  death-stroke.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  Dr.  von  Volpi,  describing  his  own  personal  observations 
on  the  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  April,  1872,  refers  to  the  terrific 
scalding  that  was  brought  about  by  superheated  steam,  and  the  result- 
ing red  scars  on  the  human  flesh:  "Man  bringt  einen  Verwundeten, 
dessen  Haut  und  Fleisch  verbrannt  sind  und  krebsroth  aussehen.  .  .  . 
Die  Verwundungen  rulirten  nicht  etwa  von  Beruhrung  der  feurigen 
Lava  her,  sondern  von  dem  gliihendheiszen  Dampfe,  der  von  ihr 


strongly  felt  the  actual  quantity  of  the  gas  present  is  very  small  when  compared  with 
carbonic  acid,  which  is  maintained  even  at  the  high  temperature  of  334°  C.  (Annales 
de  Chimie  et  de  Physique,  vol.  lii.  p.  23,  1833.)  Bunsen  also  found  that  carbonic  acid 
vastly  preponderated  among  the  gaseous  exhalations  of  the  Iceland  volcanoes. 

45 


THE   TO  WEE   OF   PELEE 

ausging  und  bei  einer  Hitze  von  800  Grad  alles  versengte  und  ver- 
brannte,  was  in  seiner  Ndhe  war." 

Drs.  Flett  and  Tempest  Anderson,  in  their  report  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  their  investigations  in  Martinique,  assume  that  the  black 
tornadic  cloud  which  wrought  or  assisted  in  the  destruction  of  Saint- 
Pierre  made  its  phenomenally  swift  descent  from  the  crater  purely  as 
the  result  of  the  acting  force  of  gravity.  It  seems  to  me  that,  had  these 
investigators  visited  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec  and  studied  its  char- 
acteristics from  near,  they  could  not  have  arrived  at  this  conclusion, 
for  no  form  of  discharge  originating  within  the  basin  itself,  unless  it 
had  been  directed  in  its  initial  movement  laterally,  could  have  carried 
the  materials  of  disruption  much,  if  at  all,  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
this  basin.  The  capacity  of  the  Etang  Sec  was  at  that  early  period 
sufficient  to  hold  a  far  greater  accumulation  than  that  which  swept 
down  the  volcano's  slope.  And  even  assuming  the  possible  transfer- 
rence  of  the  ejected  material  beyond  the  crater  borders,  it  is  not  con- 
ceivable how  such  material,  whether  cushioned  with  steam  or  not,  could, 
with  so  low  an  angle  of  slope  and  with  the  barring  obstructions  in  the 
path  of  passage  (among  others  the  ravine  of  the  Riviere  Seiche),  have 
acquired  that  prodigious  velocity  which  all  witnesses  of  the  eruption 
agree  in  saying  that  the  destroying  blast  had.  The  linear  distance 
from  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec,  the  floor  of  which  at  its  opening  occu- 
pied a  position  of  about  2600  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  to  Saint- 
Pierre  was  about  four  miles,  so  that  the  average  slope  of  the  mountain 
was  almost  exactly  1  in  8;  and  yet  it  is  certain  that  the  destroying 
cloud  swept  down  at  a  rate  of  at  least  1£  miles,  and  not  unlikely  1£ 
miles,  per  minute,  a  rate  of  descent  but  little  greater  than  that  which 
had  been  observed  in  several  of  the  more  recent  eruptions.  My  own 
studies  in  the  field  leave  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  this  so-called  ' '  ava- 
lanching"  of  the  cloud  and  its  contained  material  could  only  have  been 
produced  as  the  result  of  a  lateral  or  descending  explosive  shock,  a 
conclusion  which  has  also  been  reached  by  Lacroix  and  Giraud  and 
which  is  amply  confirmed  by  the  numerous  later  discharges  that  have 
been  observed  and  studied  by  different  investigators  since  the  May 
eruption.  On  June  5, 1902, 1  was  myself  witness  to  one  of  these  lateral 
eruptions,  still  in  the  early  period  of  the  volcano's  activity,  when  the 
discharge  for  a  considerable  distance  was  carried  through  the  air  with- 

*  Unsere  Zeit,  Leipzig,  1872,  p.  397. 
46 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

out  at  all  touching  the  slope  of  the  volcano.  Professor  Lacroix,  in  his 
reports  to  the  French  Academy,  refers  to  a  number  of  discharges  of  the 
nuee  ardente  breaking  out  laterally  from  the  base  of  the  obelisk  sur- 
mounting the  crater-cone,  and  taking  almost  invariably  a  course  down 
the  sedimented  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche, — the  course  that  was 
followed  by  nearly  all  the  eruptive  clouds  of  the  volcano.  The  cloud 
of  September  9,  1903,  made  its  way  to  the  sea  in  five  minutes.  But  no 
further  proof  of  the  explosive  discharge  of  the  black  cloud  need  be  had 
than  the  observation  made  by  the  French  Commission,*  that  most  of  the 
nuages  denses  at  about  this'  period  ascended  vertically. 

In  discussing  the  nature  of  this  lateral  blast,  which  in  a  way  is 
perhaps  comparable  to  that  which  in  1888  dislodged  a  quarter  of  the 
summit  of  Bandai-San,  I  have  referred  to  it  as  an  explosion  "in  free 
air  under  a  heavily  depressing  cushion  of  ascending  steam  and  ash, 
and  with  surrounding  walls  of  rock  on  three  sides  and  more,  to  form 
an  inner  casing  to  nature 's  giant  mortar. ' '  f  Knowing,  as  we  now  do, 
that  probably  at  that  time  the  chimney  of  the  volcano  was  already  at 
least  partially  plugged,  it  is  made  easier  to  assume  the  deflection  of  the 
tornadic  discharge  through  cushioning. 

(i)  It  has  been  remarked  as  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  so  violent 
an  eruption  as  that  of  Pelee  on  May  8,  and  equally  so  on  May  20  and 
August  30,  that  there  should  have  been  no  free  flow  of  lava,  a  condition 
that  was  long  ago  indicated  by  Leopold  von  Buch  in  the  case  of  the 
active  volcanoes  of  the  Andes  generally.  Neither  in  the  great  eruption 
of  the  Soufriere  of  1812  nor  in  the  more  recent  eruptions  of  that  re- 
markable volcano  has  there  been  any  lava-flow,  that  which  has  been 
described  as  lava  in  1812  being  merely  a  detrital  and  mud  discharge 
similar  to  the  discharge  of  1902.  Some  geologists  have  attempted  to 
measure  the  explosive  force  of  different  eruptions  by  assuming  the 
quantity  of  ejected  lava  as  the  determinant  of  this  force, — the  greater 
the  amount  of  lava  emitted,  the  greater  the  force  of  the  volcano.  It 
would  seem,  however,  that  the  opposite  conclusion  would  more  nearly 
represent  the  truth,  for  we  find  that  nearly  all  the  great  paroxysmal  dis- 
charges were  unaccompanied  by  lava-flows,  or  at  least  by  lava-flows 
of  any  magnitude.  Such  was  the  case,  for  example,  with  the  eruptions 
of  Galunggung,  in  Java,  of  Temboro,  or  Sumbawa,  in  1815,  of  the 

*  La  Colonie,  Sept.  15,  16,  1903. 

t  "  Mont  Pelee  and  the  Tragedy  of  Martinique,"  p.  317. 

47 


THE  TOWER   OF   PELEE 

Soufriere,  in  1812,  and  the  eruption  of  later  date,  of  Coseguina,  in 
Nicaragua,  in  1835,  of  Krakatao  in  1883,  and  the  eruption  of  Pelee 
of  1902.  To  these  examples,  and  many  others  that  might  be  cited, 
should  be  added  the  first  recorded  and  historic  outburst  of  Vesuvius 
in  the  year  79,  a  condition  in  marked  contrast  to  subsequent  less 
paroxysmal  eruptions  and  in  which  the  flow  of  lava  took  a  conspicuous 
part.  It  might  be  assumed,  in  explanation  of  this  seeming  inversion 
of  force  and  effect,  that  in  the  paroxysmal  types  of  eruption  the  quan- 
tity and  force  of  the  pent-up  steam  are  more  than  sufficient  simply 
to  lift  lava,  but  also  blow  it  to  pieces,  and  produce  those  enormous 
volumes  of  ejected  material  which  have  buried  or  overthrown  towns 
and  villages,  and  otherwise  defaced  the  landscape  over  vast  distances. 
Volcanoes  of  a  less  paroxysmal  type  will  pour  or  "well"  out  the  lava 
in  quiet  streams,  not  necessarily  accompanied  by  any  marked  form  of 
explosive  action. 

(I)  The  singular  oscillation  of  the  sea-surface,  the  rise  of  the 
water  by  about  three  feet,  which  was  noted  as  an  accompaniment  to 
several  of  the  more  forcible  eruptions  of  Pelee,  on  both  the  west  and 
east  coasts  (Fort-de-France,  Trinite,  etc.), — a  phenomenon  which  1 
myself  witnessed  on  the  morning  of  June  6, — may  possibly  have  been 
due  to  direct  volcanic  shocks  impacted  upon  the  floor  of  the  ocean.  The 
existence  of  oceanic  disturbances  off  the  west  coast  of  Martinique  at 
the  time  of,  or  preceding,  the  great  eruptions  of  Pelee  can  hardly  be 
doubted.  The  successive  breakages  of  the  different  cables  precedent 
to  the  great  eruptions,  and  other  facts  connected  with  the  attempted 
location  of  the  disrupted  ends  of  the  cables,  prove  this  condition  almost 
beyond  a  doubt.  Krebs  has  latterly  called  attention,  in  a  paper  on 
tidal  fluctuations  as  related  to  volcanic  phenomena,*  to  an  extended 
marine  disturbance  which  traversed  the  entire  length  of  the  Guate- 
malan coast  on  the  16th  and  17th  of  April  (1902),  one  and  two  days  in 
advance  of  the  great  earthquake  which  wrecked  a  portion  of  the  town 
of  Quezaltenango,  and  which  was  almost  coincident  with  the  first  break- 
ing into  activity  of  Pelee.  A  similar  oceanic  disturbance  was  noted  on 
May  4,  the  day  in  advance  of  the  mud  discharge  from  Pelee  which 
overwhelmed  the  Usine  Guerin. 

»  Globus,  July  30,  1903. 


48 


SOME   THOUGHTS  ON   VOLCANIC   PHENOMENA   SUGGESTED  BY   THE  ANTILLEAN 

ERUPTIONS 

THE  broad  territory  in  the  Caribbean-Gulf  region  which  was  cov- 
ered by  the  seismic  and  volcanic  disturbances  of  1902  is  very  note- 
worthy. From  southern  Mexico  in  the  west  to  the  Lesser  Antilles  in 
the  east  we  have  an  interval  in  a  direct  line  of  not  less  than  1800  miles, 
and  along  or  near  this  line  disturbances  have  been  registered  in  Costa 
Eica,  Nicaragua,  Salvador,  Guatemala,  and  Mexico.  The  remarkable 
crowding  of  the  phenomena  is  such  that  one  cannot  well  resist  the  con- 
clusion that  they  are  all  interrelated  or  hold  a  mutual  relation  to  a 
single  inciting  cause,  and  are  not  coincidental  in  their  occurrence. 
Thus,  as  Eockstro  and  Sapper  have  also  directed  attention,  the  earth- 
quake of  Quezaltenango,  in  Guatemala,  took  place  on  almost  the  exact 
day,  April  17-18,  on  which  Pelee  first  seriously  manifested  its  new 
activity ;  and  the  volcano  of  Izalco,  in  Salvador,  ordinarily  one  of  the 
most  active  of  American  volcanoes,  but  whose  eruptive  energies  had 
calmed  down  for  a  number  of  years,  started  upon  a  new  period  of 
eruptivity  almost  immediately  after  the  earthquake  of  April  18  (the 
effects  of  which  were  noted  from  Salvador  and  Honduras  to  Mexico), 
and  was  in  energetic  action  on  May  10,  two  days  after  Pelee 's  great 
paroxysm.*  It  was  not  without  reason,  therefore,  that  Milne  advanced 
the  view  that  the  earthquake  of  Quezaltenango  was  the  real  initiator 
or  instigator  of  the  disturbances  that  followed  rapidly  upon  it :  it  took 
the  lid  off  the  boiling  pot,  and  the  pot  exploded.  But  one  may  reason- 
ably extend  the  history  of  the  disturbances  so  as  to  include  the  earlier 
earthquake  which  on  January  14  (16?)  in  great  part  wrecked  the  town 
of  Chilpancingo,  and  the  later  eruption  (beginning  on  October  24,  1902, 
and  continuing  to  November  15)  of  the  volcano  of  Santa  Maria,  in 
Guatemala, — a  volcano  situated  close  to  the  field  of  Quezaltenango,  and 
of  which  no  antecedent  eruption  has  been  chronicled  for  ante-Columbian 


*  Rockstro,   Nature,    Jan.   22,   1902 ;     Sapper,   Centralblatt   fur  Mineralogie   und 
Geologic,  April,  1903. 

49 


THE   TOWER  OF   PELEE 

or  historic  times,* — together  with  the  reawakening  in  February  and 
March  of  Colima  in  southern  Mexico.f 

Assuming,  as  we  do,  the  continuity  of  these  various  forms  of  dis- 
turbance in  the  Caribbean  region,  we  are  necessarily  driven  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  inciting  force  of  the  disturbances  was  regional  in 
its  extent,  and  not  local,  and  was  in  no  way  concerned  with  localized 
rifts  and  subvolcanic  fissures,  the  penetration  of  sea-water,  of  land- 
water,  etc.  The  inquiry  is,  What  was  the  nature  of  this  inciting  force  ? 
What  are  the  particular  conditions  in  our  planet  which  at  varying 
intervals  bring  the  products  of  eruptive  action  (steam  and  lava)  to  the 
surface  or  initiate  volcanic  phenomena? 

On  the  generally  accepted  hypothesis  that  layers,  beds,  or  pockets 
of  molten  rock-material  lie  within  the  earth  at  no  very  great  distance 
beneath  the  surface, — perhaps  20  or  30  miles,  or  even  considerably 
less, — or  that  potentially  molten  rock  occupies  this  position  and  on 
release  of  pressure  would  assume  the  fluidal  condition,  it  is  easy  to 
postulate  that  the  application  of  strong  vertical  mechanical  pressure, 
whether  directed  over  local  or  over  broad  areas,  might  ' '  squeeze ' '  this 
material  to  the  surface, — force  it  into  channels  where  an  exit  is  made 
possible.  Such  a  form  of  pressure  might  be,  and  almost  certainly  is, 
furnished  by  the  weight  of  subsiding  areas  of  the  earth's  superficial 
zone  or  crust,  and  it  is  hardly  a  coincidence  that  all  active  volcanoes 
(and,  inferentially,  this  may  be  made  applicable  to  all  extinct  and 
ancient  centres  of  eruption)  are  placed  relatively  to  the  land-masses  of 
the  globe  in  regions  of  marked  instability  or  weakness  and  where  the 
exercise  of  pressure  produces  work.  Their  absence  from  the  major 
areas  of  the  superficial  crust  where  ages  of  construction  and  strain 
have  established  a  rigid  stability  proves  that  the  dynamic  force  under- 
lying volcanic  action  is  made  operative  only  where  a  way,  whether  by 
forcing  or  dislocation,  has  been  prepared  for  it. 

I  have  elsewhere  $  stated  my  belief  that  a  subsidence  of  the  floor  of 
the  Caribbean  Basin,  causing  displacements  of  equilibrium  and  forcing 
molten  and  other  material  to  the  surface,  was  the  inciting  force  of  the 
Antillean  eruption ;  and  it  still  appears  to  me  that  his  hypothesis  alone 
satisfies  the  conditions  which  the  broadly  distributed  phenomena  call 

*  Kockstro,  Nature,  Jan.  22,  1902. 

tEzequiel  Ordonez,  Les  Dernieres  Eruptions  du  Volcan  de  Colima,  Mexico,  1903. 
J  Mont  Pelee  and  the  Tragedy  of  Martinique :    "  The  Volcanic  Relations  of  the 
Caribbean  Basin." 

50 


THE   TOWEE  OF   PELEE 

for.  Unfortunately,  in  problems  of  this  class,  where  the  more  impor- 
tant facts  or  conditions  are  destined  to  remain  obscure,  it  is  impossible 
to  absolutely  unite  cause  and  effect,  and  it  is  only  a  strong  probability 
that  can  be  assumed.*  The  coincidental  association  between  the  distri- 
bution of  volcanoes  and  the  larger  mountain  tracts,  and  the  fact  that 
both  lie  close  to  the  sea-board,  do  away  entirely  with  the  necessity  of 
invoking  the  acting  presence  of  sea-water  as  a  condition  of  vulcanism. 
Volcanoes,  like  mountains,  lie  close  to  the  sea-border  because  the  super- 
crust  is  there  weak,  and  not  because  the  ocean-water  is  needed  in  their 
making.  There  are  no  active  volcanoes  in  or  adjacent  to  extensive 
strips  of  modern  flat  land  along  the  sea-board  or  elsewhere  where 
these  are  free  of  mountain  elevations;  nor  are  there  active  volcanoes 
associated  with  ancient  mountain  masses  (as  in  Norway,  Sweden, 
Greenland,  Labrador,  Brazil),  unless  these  mountain  masses,  whether 
on  the  sea-board  or  not,  have  lying  in  with  them  other  mountain  parts 
of  much  newer  date. 

It  might  be  expected,  in  proof  of  a  subsiding  region,  that  some- 
where along  its  contours  evidence  would  be  found  of  a  rise  or 
" squeezing  up"  of  the  adjoining  land-mass,  whether  in  the  form  of  a 
bodily  uplift  or  of  a  plication  or  series  of  folds.  As  pertaining  to  this 
particular  region,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  so  far  back  as  1890  Prof. 
Shaler,  in  a  paper  on  "The  Topography  of  Florida,"  had  expressed 
the  view  that  this  singular  projection  of  the  Atlantic  contour  of  the 
United  States  was  due  to  a  squeeze  between  the  subsiding  areas,  the 
Gulf  basin  on  one  side  and  the  Atlantic  basin  on  the  other ;  f  and  I  have 
held  to  the  same  view  both  as  regards  the  peninsula  of  Florida  and  the 
opposed  peninsula  of  Yucatan.:}:  The  subsidence  of  the  Gulf  basin  has 
always  seemed  to  me  the  (main)  force  that  uplifted  the  eastern  and 
central  sierras  of  Mexico,  whose  buttresses  constitute  the  inner  core  of 
the  great  central  plateau.  The  evidences  of  comparatively  recent  uplift 
in  the  Antillean  tract  are  seen  on  the  terraces  or  oceanic  beaches  of 
Cuba,  Jamaica,  etc. ;  and  more  recently  they  have  again  been  carefully 
studied  by  Spencer  and  Sapper  in  the  Lesser  Antilles,  where  nearly  all 


*  See  an  early  paper  by  Starkie  Gardner  on  the  correlation  of  volcanic  eruptions 
and  oceanic  pressure  or  subsidences,  in  the  Geological  Magazine,  June- July,  1881. 

t  Bulletin  Mus.  Compar.  Zoology,  xvi. 

$  "  Geological  Researches  in  Yucatan,"  in  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sciences,  Phila.,  1891, 
pp.  136-158. 

51 


THE  TOWER   OF  PELEE 

the  islands  bear  the  marks  of  this  uplifting.  On  St.  Lucia  the  coral 
strands,  as  found  by  Sapper,  rise  to  40-150  metres ;  on  Dominica,  to  15 
and  60  metres.*  On  Martinique  the  old  sea-washed  surface  is  clearly 
distinguishable.  In  just  what  manner  this  late  elevation  of  the  islands 
was  effected  cannot  positively  be  told,  but  it  suggests  lateral  thrust 
similar  to  that  which  has  been  assumed  for  the  peninsulas  of  Florida 
and  Yucatan,  the  acting  force  being  the  Atlantic  basin  on  one  side  and 
the  Caribbean  on  the  other.  This  view  has  already  been  in  a  way 
expressed  by  Michel  Levy,  in  his  paper  on  the  Antillean  eruptions,  pub- 
lished in  the  Revue  Generate  des  Sciences  Naturelles,  June,  1902,  and  it 
is  one  in  kind  which  is  generally  accepted  in  explanation  of  closely  cor- 
responding phenomena  of  the  Mediterranean  region  of  Eurafrica. 

We  may  assume  three  resultants  of  any  applied  telluric  pressure : 
1,  the  forcing  out  direct  of  a  pocket  of  molten  magma  (perhaps  exem- 
plified in  some  of  the  quiet  outwellings  of  lava,  which  flow  without 
explosion) ;  2,  releasing  from  pressure  parts  of  the  interior  which  are 
at  the  critical  temperature  of  melting,  and  permitting  them  to  be  con- 
verted into  lava,  with  subsequent  extrusion;  and,  3,  the  superheating 
of  water-containing  rocks  of  a  higher  horizon  by  forcing  to  them  the 
heated  rocks  of  the  deeper  interior,  and  by  this  contact  producing 
explosive  force.  This  last  condition  is  accepted  by  Stanislas  Meunier 
as  the  basal  explanation  of  volcanic  phenomena  generally,!  and  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  it  sufficiently  explains  many  of  the  explosive 
forms  of  eruption.:}: 

We  may,  following  Mallett,  establish  calculated  temperatures  in 
the  interior  as  the  result  of  earth-pressure,  and  by  other  means  assume 
the  equivalent  of  mechanical  work  that  would  be  furnished ;  but  it  does 

*  Centralblatt  fur  Mineralogie,  Nos.  9,  10,  and  11,  1903. 

t  Acad.  des  Sciences  meeting,  Jan.  12-19;  Revue  Scientifique,  Jan.  24,  1903,  p.  120. 

tA  somewhat  similar  conclusion,  bearing  upon  the  Antillean  eruptions,  is  ex- 
pressed by  Prof.  Robert  T.  Hill,  in  his  report  published  in  the  National  Geographic 
Magazine  (1902,  xiii.  p.  266),  where  he  says:  "  The  synchronism  of  this  eruption  (Pelee) 
with  that  of  St.  Vincent,  a  hundred  miles  distant,  and  volcanoes  of  similar  andesitic 
character  in  Central  America,  to  say  nothing  of  disturbances  reported  in  volcanic  areas 
throughout  the  world,  is  strangely,  almost  positively,  suggestive  that  the  cause  of  the 
eruption  of  Pelee  was  not  the  development  of  a  local  fissure  suddenly  letting  the  water 
of  the  sea  down  to  the  depths  of  the  hot  magma,  but,  upon  the  contrary,  resulted  from 
a  widely  occurring  disturbance  within  the  interior  of  the  earth's  magma,  which  caused 
it  to  rise  to  meet  the  upper  wet  zone,  rather  than  the  water  of  the  latter  to  descend  to 
it,  and  which  is  as  yet  inexplicable." 

52 


THE  TOWEE   OF  PELEE 

not  seem  to  me  that  such  calculations  at  this  time  afford  us  more  than 
interesting  conjectural  results,  the  verity  of  which,  in  any  application 
to  existing  conditions,  may  be  very  wide  of  the  real  truth.  Calculations 
of  this  kind,  while  they  undoubtedly  have  their  value  in  forcing  other 
comparisons  with  them,  have  very  generally  proved  to  be  suggestive 
rather  than  fundamental,  and  they  rarely  furnish  data  that  are  sub- 
stantial and  resist  attack.  Similarly,  any  discussion  of  the  condition 
in  which  a  molten  (or  potentially  molten)  magma  lies  within  the  earth, 
however  interesting  and  fruitful  of  generalization  it  may  prove,  can 
hardly  afford  more  than  conjectural  results.  Stiibel  *  has  ingeniously 
attempted  to  show  the  succession  of  volcanic  events  in  the  earth's  his- 
tory, but  they  are  wholly  impossible  of  demonstration,  either  as  to  the 
successional  building  up  of  the  earth's  crust  or  of  the  two  forms  of 
volcanoes  which  he  designates  monogenetic  and  polygenetic.  One  may 
safely  assume  the  existence  of  such  magma  without  feeling  that  the 
condition  of  its  occurrence  or  formation  is  necessarily  a  party  to  the 
problem  under  consideration. 

The  most  catastrophic  events  of  vulcanism  have  almost  invariably 
been  developed  by  island  volcanoes  or  by  volcanoes  that  are  absolutely 
situated  on  the  sea-board.  Among  the  examples  of  the  paroxysmal 
types  of  eruption  illustrating  this  view  may  be  cited  the  explosions  of 
Papandayang,  in  Java,  in  1772 ;  of  Asamayama,  in  Japan,  in  1783 ;  of 
the  Soufriere  of  St.  Vincent,  in  1812 ;  of  Teniboro,  in  Sumbawa,  in  1815 ; 
of  Coseguina,  in  Nicaragua,  on  the  Bay  of  Fonseca,  in  1835;  of  San- 
torin,  in  1866 ;  of  Krakatao,  in  1883 ;  of  Tarawera,  in  New  Zealand,  in 
1886 ;  of  Bandai-San,  in  Japan,  in  1888 ;  and  of  the  Soufriere  and  Mont 
Pelee,  on  the  islands  of  St.  Vincent  and  Martinique,  in  1902.  To  this 
same  class  must  be  added  the  earliest  historically  recorded  eruption 
of  Vesuvius,  that  of  the  year  79,  when  Pompeii,  Herculaneum,  and  other 
fair  towns  and  villages  in  the  region  of  or  about  Campania  were  over- 
whelmed, f  The  existence  of  the  islands  themselves,  or  the  severance 
of  parts  of  land  from  a  united  mass,  may  in  most  cases  be  taken  as 
evidence  indicating  strong  crustal  movements  and  corresponding 


*  Ein  Wort  iiber  deu  Sitz  der  Vulkaniscben  Krafte,  1901. 

t  The  date  of  the  destruction  of  Pompeii  is  usually  given  as  the  24th  of  August ; 
but  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt,  if  Pliny's  relation  is  to  be  relied  upon,  that  this  event 
took  place  on  the  day  following  (25th), — the  day  on  which  the  great  black  cloud  is 
described  by  Pliny  as  having  swept  down  the  volcano's  slope,  veiling  the  landscape  in 
darkness. 

53 


THE  TOWEE   OF    PELEE 

crustal  debility.  The  lofty  active  cones  of  the  equatorial  Andes  have 
had  in  the  period  of  our  knowledge  regarding  them  no  eruptions  that 
were  in  any  way  comparable  with  these,  and  this  is  also  true  of  the 
active  cones  of  main  and  peninsular  Alaska  (Iliamna,  Wr angel,  Maku- 
shin,  Sheshaldin),  of  Kamtchatka,  of  Mexico  (Colima,  Ceboruco,  Jo- 
rullo  (the  facts  connected  with  the  eruption  of  the  last  seem  to  have 
been  given  in  an  exaggerated  form  to  Alexander  von  Humboldt),  Popo- 
catepetl, and  Orizaba). 

The  association  between  volcanic  activity  and  breakage  zones  or 
lines  has  recently  been  well  emphasized  by  Hoernes  in  his  review  of  the 
recent  eruptions,*  in  which  the  Antillean  volcanoes,  paralleled  with 
those  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  Apennines  and  of  Hungary,  are 
regarded 'as  being  placed  over  the  inner  breakage  areas  of  crescentic 
mountain  folds.  Voltz,  in  a  paper  recently  published  on  the  disposition 
of  the  Sumatran  volcanoes,  has  shown  that  all  the  volcanoes  of  that 
island  are  located  on  fracture-areas  ("Bruch-Zonen,"  "Bruch-Kes- 
sel"),  and  pointed  out  the  interesting  fact  that  these  fracture-areas  are 
wanting  in  the  non- volcanic  portions  of  the  island. f  And  Hauthal,  in 
his  memoir  on  the  volcanic  regions  of  Chile  and  Argentina,  has  em- 
phatically pointed  out,  as  opposed  to  the  views  expressed  by  Stiibel  and 
others,  that  most  of  the  volcanoes  proper  of  that  region,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  massive  flows,  distinctly  conform  in  their  alignment 
to  the  linear  trend  or  main  axis  of  the  Cordilleras,^:  thus  proving 
association  with  a  long  line  of  crustal  dislocation  or  fracture.§ 

*Die  Vulkanischen  Ausbriiche  auf  den  kleinen  Antillen,  Mitteil.  naturwiss.  Ver- 
eins  fiir  Steiermark,  1902,  pp.  xxxi.  et  seq. 

tDie  Anordnung  der  Vulcane  auf  Sumatra,  Jahresb.  d.  Schles.  Gesel.  fiir  vaterl. 
Cultur,  July  24,  1901. 

t  Petermann's  Mitteilungen,  1903,  v. 

§  While  the  foregoing  was  in  press  I  received  Part  3  of  Geologischer  Theil  of  K. 
Martin's  "Reisen  in  den  Molukken"  (Leyden,  1903),  dealing  with  Bum  and  the  neigh- 
boring islands,  in  which  the  isostatic  displacements,  resulting  in  upheavals,  lateral 
thrusts,  etc.,  due  to  subsidence  of  blocks  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  the  relation  of  these 
to  volcanic  phenomena  are  given  full  affirmative  value.  The  views  that  I  have  ex- 
pressed regarding  the  condition  of  the  Caribbean  Basin  seem  to  have  an  absolute  appli- 
cation in  the  Molucca  Sea,  where  the  fracture  subsidence  zones  are  pre-eminently  the 
areas  of  volcanic  disturbance  and  of  local  upthrusts  (pp.  283-288).  See  also  this 
author's  earlier  paper  on  the  structure  of  a  portion  of  the  Caribbean  Basin:  "Reise 
nach  Niederlandisch  West  Indien,"  ii.  Geologic,  pp.  213  et  seq.,  1888  (the  dismember- 
ment of  Curasao,  Aruba,  and  Bonaire). 

54 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

The  Source  of  Volcanic  Steam  and  the  Assumed  Penetration  of 
Sea-Water. — It  may  perhaps  be  at  once  admitted  that  we  shall  never  be 
in  a  position  to  know  to  what  extent  oceanic  water  gains  access  to  the 
earth's  interior,  in  whatever  way  such  access  may  be  made  possible. 
The  almost  uniformly  fresh  water  that  is  obtained  in  artesian  borings 
that  have  been  drilled  close  to  the  oceanic  border,  to  1000  and  1500  feet 
or  more,  as  at  Atlantic  City,  Cape  May,  and  elsewhere  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  America,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  a  zone  of  saturation,  even 
in  loose  sands,  gravels,  and  clays,  is  reached  within  very  short  limits. 
But  this  condition  may  be  reversed  along  the  floor  of  the  deep  sea, 
where  the  forcing  strain  is  prodigious  and  wholly  beyond  comparison 
with  what  is  exerted  over  the  superficial  zones.  It  would  not  be  reason- 
able, therefore,  to  conclude  too  hurriedly, — even  if  the  presence  of 
sea-water  is  not  a  requisite  in  the  causation  of  volcanic  phenomena, — 
that  under  these  conditions  there  is  no  penetration  into  and  through 
the  adjacent  sea-walls  or  sea-floor,  and  this  despite  the  enormous  thick- 
ness of  sedimentary  and  organic  deposit  that  must  have  accumulated 
in  the  oceanic  trough.  To  what  extent  such  penetration  may  be  checked 
by  the  expelling  force  of  the  heat  of  the  earth's  interior  is,  again,  one 
of  the  questions  to  which  geology  may  never  give  a  final  answer. 

It  has  latterly  been  argued  by  Krebs,*  that  the  evidence  of  recent 
explorations  in  desert  regions  does,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  indicate  oceanic 
filtration  to  very  considerable  distances.  Thus,  it  is  claimed,  on  the 
basis  of  Natterer's  report  on  Chemisch-Geologische  Forschungenrf  that 
sea-salt  has  been  obtained  from  wells  in  the  oasis  of  Siwah,  in  the 
Sahara  (where  nearly  all  the  well-waters  are  saline),  at  a  nearest  dis- 
tance of  160  miles  (265  kilometres)  from  the  coast;  and  at  Bilma,  at  a 
distance  of  840  miles  (1400  kilometres),  this  obtained  salt  constitutes 
an  important  industry.  Were  it  true,  as  was  so  long  held,  that  the 
Sahara  was  merely  a  region  of  degradational  sands,  and  bore  no  rela- 
tion to  any  comparatively  recent  "Mediterranean"  or  oceanic  sea,  it 
would  perhaps  be  difficult  to  account  for  the  presence  of  these  salines 
except  on  the  theory  of  oceanic  filtration.  It  is  somewhat  puzzling  to 
understand  why  geologists  should  have  so  generally  adopted  this  theory 
of  the  Sahara  basin.  The  physiognomic  character  of  the  surface,  espe- 


*  Flutschwankungen  und  die  vulkanische  Ereignisse  in  Mittelamerika,  "  Globus," 
July  30,  1903. 

t  Geographische  Zeitschrift,  Leipzig,  1899,  pp.  190-209. 

55 


THE   TOWEE   OF   PELEE 

cially  where  it  abuts  against  its  northern  "horizon,"  the  Great  Atlas 
and  the  Aures  mountains,  should  have  sufficed  to  throw  suspicion  on 
this  conception,  especially  as  the  evidence  of  the  fossils  obtained  or 
described  by  Charles  Martins,  Pomel,  Loriol,  Coquand,  Eolland,  and 
others  plainly  indicated  the  sea-bottom  at  a  time  as  late  as  the  Cre- 
taceous or  the  Tertiary  period.  But  the  oceanic  character  of  the 
Sahara  can  now  be  said  to  be  definitely  demonstrated  by  the  few  fos- 
sils coming  from  it,  to  which  Lapparent  has  latterly  called  attention, 
and  which  he  has  properly  interpreted  to  be  those  of  living  specific 
forms.  The  great  Saharan  sea,  which  covered  an  enormous  expanse  in 
the  north  of  Africa  and  which  only  at  a  very  late  geological  period  re- 
treated from  the  continent,  may  thus  sufficiently  explain  the  presence  of 
the  saline  deposits  which  have  proved  puzzling  to  some  investigators. 

It  is  no  longer  profitable  to  discuss  the  notion  for  a  long  time  held, 
and  still  held  in  some  quarters,  that  vast  open  fissures  are  from  time 
to  time  formed  along  the  oceanic  trough,  and  that  through  these  the 
oceanic  waters  suddenly  find  their  way  to  assumed  loci  of  volcanic 
activity,  and  there  lend  themselves  to  catastrophic  ministration.  No 
geologist  has  given  satisfactory  proof  or  evidence  showing  that  such 
fissures  ever  had  or  could  have  been  formed ;  or,  assuming  the  possi- 
bility of  their  formation,  that  sea-water  could  have  found  its  way 
through  them  to  any  great  distance  beneath  the  surface.  The  long- 
continued  state  of  eruptivity  of  many  volcanoes  is  in  itself  prima-facie 
evidence  of  the  non-existence  of  sub-oceanic  rifts,  otherwise  we  should 
be  obliged  to  assume  for  them  a  period  of  open  life  of  incredibly  long- 
duration.  The  "fissure"  was  needed  to  accommodate  the  oceanic 
theory  of  volcanic  phenomena,  but  it  never  had  support  from  the 
facts  of  geology. 

Assumed  Penetration  of  Land-Water. — The  relations  of  this  prob- 
lem are  much  more  accessible  than  those  of  the  last,  and  we  are  at 
once  face  to  face  with  the  common  fact,  as  shown  by  springs  and  other 
waters,  that  the  penetration  of  fresh  waters  is  at  least  considerable. 
This  penetration  is  not,  however,  directly  through  the  substance  of 
rock-strata,  as  the  surface-inlay  of  rain-waters  plainly  proves,  but 
through  or  along  rock-rifts  and  fractures,  bedding  and  sliding  planes, 
fault-planes,  etc. 

If  this  penetration  as  is  indicated  by  the  evidence  of  temperature 
alone  is  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  conditions  of  volcanic  localization, 
it  yet  touches  upon  a  possibility.  The  problem  that  presents  itself  in 

56 


THE   TOWER   OF   PELEE 

this  connection,  however,  is  not  one  of  possibility  or  probability  alone. 
It  must  be  shown,  or  at  least  made  probable,  that,  with  all  the  condi- 
tions of  penetration  satisfied,  the  descending  waters  are  in  any  way 
materially  concerned  in  the  phenomena  that  are  so  forcefully  brought 
to  the  surface  and  in  which  the  vapor  of  water  plays  so  important  a 
part. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  the  facts  of  geology  give  no  support  to 
the  view  that  sees  an  association  between  surface-water  and  volcanic 
phenomena.  The  activities  of  far-oceanic  volcanoes,  with  their  small 
catchment  basins,  wholly  preclude  the  notion  that  their  work  is  related 
to  the  amount  of  accumulation  and  descent  of  the  local  waters.  The 
paroxysmal  eruptions  of  Pelee  and  the  Soufriere,  350  and  375  miles 
from  the  nearest  point  of  continental  land,  and  the  sudden  recurrences 
of  paroxysms,  with  prodigious  discharges  of  steam-water,  after  com- 
paratively short  intervals,  are  evidence  in  the  same  direction.  The 
continuous  activity  of  Stromboli,  whose  eruptions,  in  one  form  or 
another,  have  followed  almost  uninterruptedly  for  a  period  of  2000 
years  or  more,  is  likewise  opposed  in  its  bearing  to  the  view  that  has 
been  held.  It  is  true  the  argument  might  be  advanced  that  the  supply- 
basin  of  the  surface  waters  need  not  necessarily  be  a  near  one;  but 
this  condition,  in  its  application  to  the  very  large  number  of  cases  that 
it  would  be  obliged  to  cover,  is  so  conjectural  and  remotely  probable 
that  it  need  not  be  considered.  It  is  a  form  of  explanation  that  crops 
up  only  too  frequently  in  geological  discussion. 

One  of  the  forms  of  evidence  that  has  been  brought  forward  to 
support  the  view  that  the  land-waters  have  much  to  do  with  the  im- 
mediate causation  of  volcanic  explosions  is  that,  at  times  of  eruption, 
it  has  frequently(?)  been  noted  that  the  surface  waters  of  the  regions 
immediately  disturbed  underwent  diminution  in  bulk,  and  in  some  in- 
stances entirely  disappeared, — the  land  '  *  drying  up, "  as  it  were.  That 
such  conditions  have  taken  place  can  hardly  be  doubted ;  the  evidence 
of  authority  on  this  point  is  seemingly  conclusive.  It  is  not  unnatu- 
ral, therefore,  to  associate  this  disappearance  with  the  phenomena  that 
seemingly  directly  accompany  it.  But  in  very  few  of  the  cases  that 
geologists  have  cited  to  prove  this  association  are  the  data  of  so  precise 
a  nature  as  to  permit  us  to  state  that  the  disturbance  of  the  surface- 
waters  was  precedent,  and  not  subsequent,  to  the  actual  eruption.  That 
the  latter  condition  was  true  in  a  number  of  cases  is  indisputable,  and  it 
is  in  no  way  surprising,  as  land-movements,  whether  true  earthquakes 

57 


THE  TOWEE   OF   PELEE 

or  earth-tremors,  are  a  frequent  accompaniment  of  volcanic  eruptions, 
and  it  would  be  but  natural  to  find  in  such  places  displacements  or  even 
a  complete  obliteration  of  water-channels  or  basins.  One  might  be 
tempted  to  conclude  that  the  case  could  hardly  be  otherwise.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  the  remarkable  paroxysmal  eruptions  of  Pelee,  which 
followed  one  another  at  exceedingly  short  intervals  (May  8,  May  20, 
June  6,  July  9,  August  30),  there  was  practically  no  disturbance  of  the 
surface-waters,  except  of  such  which  lay  directly  in  the  path  of  the 
erupted  products;  and,  as  is  well  known,  the  hydrant  and  fountain- 
waters  were  running  from  some  of  the  Saint-Pierre  spigots  when  the 
city  was  first  explored  after  its  destruction,  on  May  10,  and  continued 
flowing  for  ten  or  fifteen  days.  The  belief  that  the  waters  of  the  Lac 
des  Palmistes,  the  summit  tarn,  had  suddenly  been  drawn  into  the  vol- 
cano and  were  the  cause  of  its  first  violent  eruption,  was  purely  fan- 
ciful, and  was  founded  on  the  supposition  that  this  lake,  and  not  the 
Etang  Sec,  represented  the  true  crateral  basin  of  the  volcano.  There 
was  no  disturbance  whatever  in  the  basin  of  the  Lac  des  Palmistes, 
beyond  infilling  with  the  discharge  products  of  the  several  eruptions.* 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  cite  numerous  instances  where  volcanic 
eruptions  have  left  unaffected  the  water-supply  of  the  regions  imme- 
diately about,  whether  by  precedence  or  by  subsequence ;  nor  again  to 
show  where  the  force  of  the  eruption  had  directly  opened  the  way  for 
a  new  distribution  or  even  practical  annihilation  of  either  standing  or 
running  waters  (Tarawera,  Ilopango,  etc.).  Geologists  have  so  far 
found  it  impossible  to  establish  any  relationship  or  concurrence 
between  the  periods  of  volcanic  eruption  and  particular  meteorological 
conditions  of  the  atmosphere,  whether  of  pressure  or  of  rain-supply; 
and  much  less  has  it  been  possible  to  show  that  the  intensity  of  erup- 
tion is  in  any  way  heightened  by  an  excess  of  precipitation.  Prof. 
Suess,f  who  has  latterly  attempted  to  show  that  the  phenomena  of 
certain  hot  springs  (and  geysers)  are  fundamentally  volcanic  in  their 
nature,  and  are  of  a  deep-seated,  rather  than  of  a  superficial  source,  has 
well  laid  emphasis  on  the  fact  that  these  waters,  in  the  quantity  of  their 
discharge  or  their  periodicity,  bear  likewise  no  relation  to  the  meteoro- 


*  It  would  appear  from  Rockstro's  investigations  that  the  water  of  the  hot  springs 
in  the  Santa  Maria  region  of  Guatemala  was  reduced  in  quantity  after  the  earthquake 
of  April,  1902.  (Nature,  Jan.  22,  1903.) 

tUeber  heisse  Quellen  (Gesell.  Deutscher  Naturf.  u.  Arzte.  Verh.,  1902. 

58 


THE   TOWEK   OF   PELEE 

logic  conditions  that  surround  them,  and  that  their  operations  are  per- 
formed alike  in  periods  of  drought  and  excessive  precipitation. 

The  Hydrated  Rocks  and  Magma  of  the  Earth's  Interior  as  a 
Water  Supply. — Many  geologists  (Fisher,  Tschermak,  K-eyer,  Lane, 
and  more  recently  Suess,  Fairchild,*  and  Lapparent)f  have  expressed 
their  conviction  that  the  true  source  of  volcanic  water  is  to  be  found  in 
the  hydrated  rocks  and  magma  of  the  earth's  interior,  and  there  is 
much  to  support  their  view,  even  if  it  cannot  be  accepted  to  a  complete 
exclusion  of  the  consideration  of  the  part  which  oceanic  water  may 
take  as  an  assistant  or  aid.  Unfortunately,  the  geologist  is  here  again 
at  the  disadvantage  of  not  being  able  to  obtain  hold  of  absolute  facts, 
or  of  anything  beyond  plausible  surmise.  Neither  negatively  nor  posi- 
tively does  the  problem  offer  much  fruit ;  nor,  indeed,  can  it,  until  the 
equally  obscure  problem  of  oceanic  penetration  has  in  itself  been 
resolved. 


*  Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  America,  January,  1904. 

t  L'Eruption   de  la  Martinique,   Revue  des  Questions   Scientifiques,   January   20, 
1903. 


59 


INDEX 


After-glows,  32,  33,  35,  36 
Ajoupa  Bouillon,  desolation  of,  6,  7 
Argentina,  volcanic  region  of,  48 
Ash,  quantity  of  discharge,  33,  37 


M 

Magnetic  disturbances,  32,  34 
Morne  de  la  Croix,  8,  20 
Morne  Rouge,  desolation  of,  6 


Caribbean  Basin,  subsidence  of,  44 
Chile,  volcanoes  of,  48 
Colima,  renewed  activity  of,  44 
Cone  of  Pelee.    See  DOME. 
Crater  of  Pelee,  9,  20,  21 


Dome  of  Pelee,  19,  20,  22,  24-26 


E 
Electric  illumination,  32,  34 


Florida,  structure  of  peninsula,  45 


G 

Giorgios.     See  SANTOBIK. 


Oceanic  oscillation,  34,  41 


Pelee,  destroying  cloud  of,  7;  new  ascent 
of,  4-10;  crater  of,  9,  20,  21;  tower 
of,  9-31;  cone  or  dome  of,  19,  20,  22- 
26;  discharges  of  the  black  cloud,  23; 
nature  of  the  dome  or  cone,  24-26; 
phenomena  of  the  eruptions,  32-42 

Phenomena  of  the  eruptions.  Magnetic 
disturbances,  32,  34;  electric  illumina- 
tion, 32,  34;  sound-waves,  32,  35 ;  shock- 
wave,  32;  after-glows,  32,  33,  35,  36; 
quantity  of  ash,  33,  37;  tornadic  blast, 
33,  37-41;  ejected  products,  33,  41; 
oceanic  oscillation,  34,  41;  synchronism 
of  activity,  34,  42 

Pompeii,  destruction  of,  39,  47 


Izalco,  renewed  activity  of,  43 


Quezaltenango,  earthquake  of,  42,  43 


L  S 

Lac  des  Palmistes,  8,  22,  52  Saint-Pierre,  revisited,  5-7 

Lava-products,   33,  41;    absence   of   lava-       Santa  Maria,  eruption  of,  43 
flow,  41  Santorin  phenomena,  19,  39 

61 


INDEX 


Soufriere  of  St.  Vincent,  34,  51 
Sound  waves,  32,  35 
Sumatra,  volcanoes  of,  48 


Terraces  (oceanic),  on  St.  Lucia,  46;  Do- 
minica, 46;  Martinique,  46 

Tower  of  Pelee,  9-31;  height  of,  11,  15; 
general  appearance,  12 ;  first  appearance, 
13-14;  rate  of  ascent,  15;  modifica- 
tions and  breakages,  16-18;  disruption 
of,  22,  23;  new  fragments,  24;  nature 
of,  26-31 


Vesuvius,  recent  phenomena  of,  25;  erup- 
tion of  year  79,  41 

Volcanic  phenomena  (see  also  PHENOM- 
ENA OP  THE  ERUPTIONS)  :  extent  of 
disturbances,  43;  effects  of  crustal 
pressure,  44~46;  positions  occupied  by 
volcanoes,  45;  catastrophic  phenomena, 
47;  association  with  breakage  zones,  48; 
source  of  volcanic  steam,  49H52 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


62 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PLATE    I 

Pelee  in  eruption,  as  seen  from  the  graveyard  of  Marigot,  about  eleven  miles  in  a 
direct  line  east  by  north  of  the  crater,  in  the  early  morning  of  August  26,  1902.  The 
crosses,  head-stones,  etc.,  are  illumined  by  the  horizontal  rays  of  the  rising  sun.  A 
marked  effect  upon  the  rising  steam-ash  cloud  of  the  volcano  produced  by  wind-action 
is  seen  in  its  abrupt  bending  over  in  the  lower  atmospheric  zone.  The  upper  reversed 
course  is  the  result  of  the  penetration  of  the  higher  column  into  a  zone  of  contrary 
(antitrade?)  winds — a  condition  that  was  not  infrequent  in  the  Pelee  picture.  The  broad 
extent  of  the  outflowing  steam-ash  cloud  is  beautifully  shown  here. 


Expl.  Heilprin. 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright.  1902 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

f  m.  OF 


PLATE    II 

Pelee,  with  its  terminal  tower  or  obelisk,  as  seen  from  the  southern  section  of  Saint- 
Pierre  (looking  north-northeast,  and  across  an  interval  of  about  five  miles).  Total  height 
of  the  mountain  somewhat  over  5000  feet,  with  the  tower,  which  is  moderately  curved 
over  in  the  direction  of  Saint-Pierre  and  shows  a  disrupted  face  turned  to  this  side,  con- 
stituting about  one-sixth.  The  deeply-incised  gully  or  rift  descending  from  the  base 
of  the  tower  to  the  centre-middleground  of  the  picture  is  the  upper  portion  of  the 
Riviere  Blanche  valley,  into  which  much  of  the  discharge  product  of  the  different  erup- 
tions was  swept,  and  which  marked  the  more  general  course  of  the  descending  nuees 
ardentes  (black  eruption  clouds,  of  the  French  Scientific  Commission).  The  dark  heights 
on  the  right  are  Mont  Parnasse,  the  summit  and  slopes  of  which  were  swept  by  the 
destroying  blast  of  May  8.  Photograph  taken  on  a  day  exceptionally  clear  of  volcanic 
storm. 


PLATE    III 

The  breaking  clouds  and  vapors  uncovering  the  giant  tower,  as  seen  from  the  south, 
a  short  distance  below  the  summit  of  the  mountain  (June  13,  1903).  The  fingered, 
pinnacled,  or  serrated  contour  of  the  western  side  is  well  shown; — likewise,  the  in- 
dented apical  summit.  The  lower  slope  on  the  left  is  the  supporting  cone  or  dome. 
Attention  may  be  called  to  the  long  vertical  rift  appearing  near  the  centre  of  the  tower. 
Many  of  the  greater  breakages  in  the  final  destruction  of  the  tower  took  place  along 
lines  of  such  fracture. 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


Ill 


PLATE    IV 

The  great  tower,  as  seen  from  the  crater-rim  in  the  afternoon  of  June  13,  1903,  and 
looking  north-northwest.  The  most  instructive  feature  in  this  picture  is  the  supporting 
cone  or  dome — the  mass  built  up  of  lava  and  fragmental  material  which  is  implanted 
upon  the  floor  of  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec  and  is  the  virtual  new  crateral-cone  of  the 
volcano.  Steam  and  sulphur  vapors  are  being  puffed  through  its  walls.  The  height 
of  this  dome,  which  in  its  later  stages  could  be  compared  structurally  with  the  cumuloid 
dome  of  Giorgios,  in  Santorin,  surpassed  by  a  hundred  feet  or  more  the  crater-border 
immediately  abreast  of  it.  Two  powerful  ribs  or  ridges  of  continuous  lava  appear  on 
the  right-hand  side,  giving  evidence  of  a  true  fluidal  or  semi-fluid  condition. 


Photo.  Heilpr 


IV 


I*^^ 

OF  THE  A 

UNIVERSITY 


OF 


PLATE    V 

The  Tower  of  Pelee  as  seen  from  the  old  crater-rim,  and  exhibiting  the  side  turned 
to  Assier  and  Vive  (approx.  east-northeast).  Its  cork- like  extrusion  from  the  cone  or 
dome  is  impressively  shown,  and  it  at  once  suggests  the  probability  of  the  mass  being 
merely  a  pushed-out  ancient  core  or  plug.  There  is  here  no  suggestion  of  a  rapidly- 
solidifying  (recent)  viscous  lava.  The  tower  on  this  face  is  smooth  and  planed  from  top 
to  base,  unquestionably  the  result  of  attrition  against  the  encasing  wall  of  rock  or 
"  mold"  which  guarded  the  exit  of  the  giant  core.  A  portion  of  the  surface  is  polished, 
and  the  greater  part  of  it  clearly  exhibits  longitudinal  grooving  and  striation.  The  puffs 
of  steam  in  the  foreground  are  being  blown  through  the  mass  of  the  cone.  Somewhat 
more  than  800  feet  of  the  height  of  the  tower  are  visible  in  the  picture.  June  13,  1903. 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


PLATE    VI 

Views  of  and  from  the  summit  of  the  volcano  (June  13,  1903).  1.  Looking  into 
the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec,  whose  restricted  area  is  seen  in  the  narrow  circular  or  horse- 
shoe-shaped valley,  brought  to  within  some  300  feet  of  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  which 
is  intersposed  between  the  old  crateral  wall  (left  side)  and  the  newly-constructed  cone  or 
dome  (right-liand  side  of  picture).  Its  width  at  the  top  may  be  fairly  measured  on  the 
line  of  its  depth.  2.  The  remains  of  the  Morne  de  la  Croix,  the  former  highest  point  of 
the  volcano.  Its  steep  descent  into  the  crater-basin  (Etang  Sec)  is  well  marked.  3.  The 
rim  of  the  volcano  (edge  of  the  crater-wall  of  the  basin  of  the  Etang  Sec).  It  looks 
down  into  the  valley  (rainure  of  the  French  Commission)  seen  in  Fig.  1  and  directly 
over  to  the  central  cone  and  its  transfixing  obelisk  or  tower.  The  steep  plunge  emphasizes 
the  caldera  structure.  The  declivity  sloping  off  to  the  right,  and  largely  covered  with 
ejected  bombs  or  boulders,  is  the  slope  descending  into  what  was  formerly  the  basin  of  the 
Lac  des  Palmistes. 


PLATE    VII 

Pelee  and  the  ash-covered  and  deeply  dissected  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  seen 
from  about  a  half  mile  off  shore  on  June  15,  1903.  The  front  mud- wall  is  largely  the  mud- 
flow  which  on  May  5,  1902,  overwhelmed  the  Usine  Guerin.  The  middle-ground  is  the 
more-recently  fallen  ash,  almost  white  in  color,  and  giving  the  appearance,  especially  in 
the  darker  hours,  of  newly-deposited  snow.  This  ash  deposit  has  a  thickness  in  places  of 

seemingly  200-300  feet  and  more.     A  light  steam  pennant  is  issuing  from  the  absolute 

« 

apex  of  Pelee's  tower.  On  this  day  I  observed  this  phenomenon  almost  uninterruptedly 
for  upwards  of  an  hour,  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  determine  that  the  pennant  was  truly 
issuing  from  the  interior  of  the  tower — which  it,  doubtless,  traversed  in  rifts — and  was 
not  a  normal  mountain  cloud  of  condensation  ("  mountain  banner").  The  absolute  height 
of  the  voldano,  from  sea-level  to  its  ultimate  apex,  was  about  5000  feet,  of  which  the 
tower  made  up  almost  exactly  one-sixth. 


PLATE    Vila 

Pelee,  after  the  destruction  of  its  tower,  as  seen  from  Saint-Pierre  (now  being 
overgrown  by  new  vegetation).  The  summit  of  the  volcano  clearly  shows  the  basal 
wreck  of  the  tower,  which  rises  up  as  a  low  buttress  above  the  crest  of  the  mountain,  and 
adjoins  (on  the  left)  the  shortened  pinnacle  known  as  the  Petit-Bonhomme.  The  right- 
hand  slope  of  the  volcano  descends  to  Morne  Rouge.  Steeply  descending  from  near  the 
apex,  with  its  further  wall  in  shadow,  is  the  gorge  of  the  Riviere  Blanche.  Photograph 
taken  in  March,  1904,  by  J.  Murray  Jordan. 


^5X 

OF  THE  ^S. 

UNIVERSITY   « 


OF 


PLATE    VIII 

Pelee  in  full  activity,  in  the  afternoon  of  August  30,  1902;  photograph  taken  about 
six  hours  before  the  cataclysm  of  the  evening  (nine  o'clock),  which  destroyed  or  wrecked 
Morne  Rouge  and  Ajoupa-Bouillon  and  partly  devastated  Morne  Balai,  Morne  Capote, 
and  the  heights  of  Bourdon  (Basse-Pointe).  The  vast  swirling  masses  of  steam,  largely 
charged  with  ash,  and  sweeping  out  with  swift  velocity  from  the  crateral  basin  as  well 
as  from  the  terminal  cone,  are  well  shown  in  their  convoluted  courses, — a  picture  of  most 
impressive  grandeur.  At  the  position  occupied  by  my  party,  on  the  upper  slope  of  the 
volcano  approaching  the  summit,  little  or  no  ash  fell,  the  driving  force  of  the  volcano 
keeping  the  ash-umbrella  floating  at  a  dizzy  height  overhead.  On  our  descent  to  the 
lower  slopes,  into  the  region  of  more  natural  calms,  and  at  a  greater  radial  distance  from 
the  crater,  the  ash  fell  over  us  in  large  quantities,  mostly  in  a  water-formed  paste.  It  had 
the  normal  temperature  of  the  air. 


Expl.  Heilprin. 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright,  1902 


VIII 


PLATE    IX 

Pelee  on  the  afternoon  of  August  30,  1902;  photograph  taken  during  a  momentary 
sun-burst,  a  few  hours  before  the  death-dealing  cataclysm  of  the  same  evening  (see  Plate 
XIII).  The  summit  of  the  volcano,  which  is  being  neared  by  my  party,  is  blotted  out  by 
the  vast  mountains  of  steam  and  ash  that  are  being  hurled  out  from  the  entire  basin  of 
the  crater,  and  whose  initial  velocity  on  leaving  the  summit  was  timed  to  be  from  1£  to  3 
miles  per  minute.  I  estimated  the  thickness  of  the  steam  column  where  it  rose  from  the 
mountain  to  be  not  less  than  1200-1400  feet,  and  it  usually  rose  in  vertical  courses.  The 
furious  boiling  of  this  storm-mass,  rasping  as  it  did  the  crateral  walls,  produced  an  inde- 
scribably terrifying — and  one  might  truly  say,  appalling — roar,  which  can  perhaps  best 
be  compared  with  the  roaring  of  the  ocean  wind  through  the  rigging  and  sheets  of  a  fleet 
of  vessels.  A  distinct  vibration  of  the  volcano  was  perceptible.  I  do  not  recall  any 
electric  flashes  traversing  this  cloud-mass.  Boulders  and  exploding  bombs  flew  out  in  all 
directions. 


Expl.  Heilprin. 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright,  1902 


IX 


PLATE   X 

Pelee  in  the  early  morning  of  August  31,  1902;  as  seen  from  o|:r  quarters  at  the 
Vive  estate  (about  five  miles  in  a  direct  line  east-northeast  of  the  crater),  and  interesting 
as  showing  the  forceful  activity  of  the  volcano  after  the  cataclysm  of  th;  evening  before 
(see  Plates  VIII.  and  IX.).  The  ash-cloud  is  being  projected  to  a  heigh;  of  from  three 
to  four  miles  above  the  summit  of  the  volcano,  and  is  taking  the  more  general  north- 
northwest  course  out  to  sea.  The  great  height  attained  by  it  is  in  the  nain  the  result 
of  actual  propulsion,  and  not  of  an  ascensive  force  due  to  expansion  md  diminished 
weight.  This  same  activity  maintained  itself  seemingly  unabated  to  aid  beyond  the 
day  of  my  departure  from  Martinique,  a  period  of  more  than  a  week,  t  was  for  this 
period  more  particularly  that,  in  a  rough  calculation,  I  estimated  the  oily  discharge 
of  ash  to  more  than  equal  the  annual  discharge  of  sediment  by  the  Missisippi  River. 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright,  1902. 


*?&FLA&^ 

•>     OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


PLATE    XI 

Strongly-illumined  steam-ash  clouds  projected  in  the  afternoon  of  August  30,  1902, 
and  beautifully  exhibiting  the  convoluted  structure,  the  rapidly  unfolding  whorls,  which 
have  been  made  part  of  the  aspect  of  the  so-called  "  cauliflower"  volcanic  cloud. 


Expl.  Heilprin. 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright,  1902. 


XI 


PLATE    XII 

Block  of  andesite,  about  four-fifths  natural  size,  obtained  from  the  eastern  slope  of 
Pelee,  and  with  little  doubt  ejected  during  the  eruption  of  August  30,  1902.  It  has  the 
superficial  resinous  or  semi-vitreous  lustre  of  typical  hypersthene-andesite  ejected  bould- 
ers, and  the  divisional  cracks  of  bread-crust  bombs.  The  weight  is  about  that  of  normal 
compact  rock,  and  the  interior  shows  no  truly  cavernous  or  cellular  structure.  The  block, 
like  hundreds  of  others  of  this  class  lying  on  the  summit  and  slopes  of  the  volcano — some 
not  larger  than  a  marble  and  others  1-3  feet,  and  more,  in  diameter — is  seemingly  a  part 
of  the  old  stock  of  the  volcano,  which  has  been  forced  asunder,  hard-rubbed  by  the 
escaping  steam,  and  cracked  by  steam  forcing  itself  Into,  and  out  from,  it. 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


XII 


PLATE    XIII 

Morne  Rouge  after  the  destruction  (photograph  taken  on  September  7,  1902),  with 
the  church  of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Deliverance  in  the  centre— one  of  very  few  buildings  of 
the  town  that  were  left  standing.  It  itself  had  part  of  its  roof  lifted  and  the  right  wall 
(not  seen  in  the  illustration)  broken  through.  It  was  in  passing  from  the  presbytery 
of  this  church  that  Pere  Mary,  the  officiating  parish  priest,  whose  steady  adherence  to 
duty  during  the  most  trying  Pelee  days  won  for  him  the  admiration  of  the  world,  was 
stricken  by  the  blast  of  August  30.  Among  the  debris  of  destruction  that  are  scattered 
about  the  church-yard  may  be  recognized,  in  the  darker  masses,  the  bodies  of  a  few  of 
the  unfortunates  who  perished  in  the  volcano's  wrecking  path. 


Expl.  Heilpr 


Singley,  Keystone  View  Co.,  Copyright,  1902. 


XIII 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PLATE    XIV 

A  portion  of  Morne  Rouge,  just  off  the  traversing  road,  and  adjoining  the  church 
of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Deliverance— the  wreck  of  the  eruption  of  August  30,  1902.  While 
the  annihilation  of  the  town  was  in  a  measure  complete,  leaving  few  houses  intact,  the 
force  of  the  destroying  blast  was  in  this  quarter  inferior  to  that  which  shattered  Saint- 
Pierre,  as  is  evidenced  by  numerous  frail  objects — tree-trunks,  posts,  etc. — that  had  been 

• 
left  standing  and  that  successfully  defied  the  storm.    On  the  other  hand,  the  manner  of  the 

destruction  appears  to  have  been  identical  in  the  two  cases.  The  loss  of  life  resulting 
from  the  destruction  of  the  town  was  probably  1000-1200,  although  the  parish  records 
place  it  at  not  less  than  1500. 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


XIV 


PLATE    XV 

The  village  of  Precheur,  lying  at  the  west  base  of  Pelee,  buried  beneath  its  mantle 
of  volcanic  ash.  This  picture  of  extreme  desolation  is  that  of  a  winter  landscape,  con- 
tributed by  the  general  whiteness  or  light-gray  color  of  the  fallen  ash.  Most  of  the  de- 
struction that  appears  was  wrought  by  the  weight  of  the  deposited  ash,  which  in  places 
is  many  inches  thick,  and  has  broken  through  roofs  and  laid  to  flat  measure  the  trees 
and  shrubbery  of  the  gardens.  Devastating  flood-waters  have  washed  out  parts  of  the 
town,  and  the  church  as  it  stands  has  had  washed  out  from  it  one-half  of  its  framework. 
On  visiting  Ajoupa-Bouillon  and  Morne  Balai  on  the  morning  of  August  31,  1902,  imme- 
diately after  the  cataclysm  of  the  night  before,  I  found  that  many  of  the  smaller  houses 
had  collapsed  under  their  burden  of  ash,  and  large  and  small  branches  of  trees  had 
broken  across  in  the  manner  of  our  northern  trees  when  subjected  to  a  heavy  ice-coating. 
During  the  May  eruptions  many  of  the  cocoanut  palms  were  bowed  down  by  ash  miles 
away  from  the  volcano. 


X 


PLATE    XVI 

Looking  up  the  valley  of  the  Riviere  Blanche,  and  into  the  V-shaped  cleft  through 
which  the  destroying  blast  is  thought  to  have  issued  from  the  crater  basin  on  May  8  (in 
the  furthest  centre).  The  upper  moiety  of  the  volcano  is  buried  in  cloud  and  vapor,  but 
the  base  of  the  cone  appears  in  the  cleft.  The  floor  of  the  valley  is  filled  with  volcanic 
debris  to  a  depth  in  places  of  not  less  than  200-250  feet — possibly  considerably  more — 
and  this  has  in  the  main  accumulated  as  the  result  of  the  August  30  (1902)  and  later 
eruptions.  Most  of  the  giant  blocks  of  rock  that  appear  scattered  over  the  valley,  meas- 
uring anywhere  from  five  and  ten  to  40~50  feet  in  length,  were  ejected  during  the  outburst 
of  August  30,  as  I  had  occasion  to  ascertain  by  direct  observation  a  few  days  after  that 
event.  There  would  seem  to  be  no  way  of  positively  fixing  the  method  of  deposition  of 
these  rock-masses — of  ascertaining  if  they  were  simply  shot  or  rolled  down  the  mountain 
slope,  or  flung  through  the  air  to  the  positions  which  they  now  occupy.  Some  of  the 
blocks  are  completely  fractured  across,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  a  fall.  The 
members  of  the  Laeroix  mission  examining  one  of  the  largest  of  the  ejected  blocks. 


XVI 


PLATE    XVII 

The  gorge  of  the  Falaise  in  its  middle  course,  where  in  a  cut  with  vertical  sides  it 
has  narrowed  to  a  few  yards'  width.  The  bounding  walls,  which  are  an  earlier  volcanic 
(agglomeritic)  accumulation,  readjusted  by  (oceanic?)  water,  are  the  supply  source  of 
much  of  the  boulder-debris  which  encumbers  the  lower  Falaise,  and  which  at  the  junction 
with  the  Capote  was  deposited  by  the  volcanic  flood-waters  to  a  height  of  15-20  feet. 
The  tempestuous  force  of  these  minor  streams  coursing  down  or  away  from  the  volcano's 
foot  was  extraordinary,  acres  of  boulders  having  been  hurled  along  almost  as  if  they 
were  floating  blocks  of  wood.  Many  of  these  were  5-8  feet  in  length,  some  considerably 
more,  and  one  (andesite)  measured  by  me  on  August  28,  1902,  was  16  feet  in  length, 
nearly  10  feet  in  width,  and  6~8  feet  thick. 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


XVII 


*-      OF 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PLATE    XVIII 

Fragments  of  manuscript,  dealing  with  volcanic  phenomena  as  part  of  a  geological 
lesson,  recovered  from  the  debris  at  Saint-Pierre.  The  darker  portion  of  the  photo- 
engraving gives  the  contour  of  the  paper,  which  is  perforated  by  holes  and  gashes.  The 
condition  of  Pompeii  at  the  time  of  its  destruction  is  referred  to  in  the  first  line  of  the 
upper  figure. 


•/fc******'^.-**  «*-**-V      . 

-I       JL<t.&tJLS»***.£. 

-X.    t^***~*<^"^*  /*    ^*^^   -^** 
/.. 


cy^«,  ^t**^  *^~    ^** 

*tf*c<±~     4*— "Tf*?^--' 


•* 


;    «^f      V^ 

' 


2 


* 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


XVIII 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PLATE   XIX 

Additional  fragments  of  manuscript,  in  two  leaves,  recovered  from  the  debris  at 
Saint-Pierre  in  June,  1903,  and  interesting  in  their  reference  to  volcanic  phenomena. 
Manifestly  it  is  a  student's  copy  of  a  lesson  in  geology,  and  possibly  represents  part  of  a 
course  in  the  last  days  of  the  Lycee  or  the  Communal  College.  We  found  these  leaves 
beneath  boulder-masses  near  the  centre  of  the  town;  they  were  turned  yellow  or  brown 
and  burned  only  on  some  of  the  edges. — Photographic  copy. 


X 
X 


PLATE   XX 

Statuette,  in  bronze,  about  four-fifths  full  size,  recovered  from  Saint-Pierre,  and 
obtained  by  purchase  in  Fort-de-France.  The  "pocked"  and  pitted  appearance  of  the 
surface  is  due  to  the  adhesion — an  "  in  welding" — of  particles  of  volcanic  ash  to  the  sub- 
stance of  the  object,  the  result  of  heat  action.  The  rearing  horse  is  part  of  the  group 
of  the  famous  "  Horse  Tamer." 


Photo.  Heilprin. 


XX 


PLATE    XXI 

Water-bottle  or  caraffe  from  Saint-Pierre,  about  four-fifths  full  size,  and  interesting 
as  showing  marked  deformations  of  its  substance  without  breakage.  There  are  no  indi- 
cations of  glass-flow,  and  the  only  apparent  change  that  the  glass  has  undergone  is  an 
acquired  murkiness.  The  substance  had  evidently  yielded  to  pressure-impacts  at  a  time 
when  it  was  subjected  to  and  softened  by  great  heat.  This  condition,  which  is  also  repre- 
sented in  the  wine-glasses  figured  in  the  following  plate  (Plate  XXII.),  sufficiently 
explains  the  similar  condition  of  objects  found  at  Pompeii,  and  does  away  with  the 
necessity  of  assuming  that  the  deformation  was  the  result  of  a  slow  and  steadily  pro- 
gressing molecular  change  whose  workings  had  extended  through  centuries  ( !  ) 


Expl.  Heilprin. 


XXI 


PLATE   XXII 

Deformed  wine-glasses  from  Saint-Pierre.     See  explanation  of  Plate  XXI. 


X 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


RETI 
TO. 

LOAI 
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